Longitudinal Analysis of Leptin Variation during Weight Regain after Weight Loss in Obese Children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holm, Jens-Christian; Gamborg, Michael; Ward, Leigh

2009-01-01

Objective: This study assessed if lower than predicted serum leptin concentrations seen during weight loss persisted during weight regain, with possible implications for weight control. Methods: 115 children were investigated during a 12-week weight loss program. 90 children completed the program....... Results: Children with the greatest increases in BMI standard deviation score (SDS) exhibited the largest leptin increments. The disproportionate reduction of leptin seen during weight loss recovered after weight loss. Leptin increases mirrored increases in BMI SDS during weight regain, and the leptin......-BMI SDS relationship seen during follow-up resembled the baseline leptin-BMI SDS relationship. Conclusion: Proportional increases of leptin and BMI SDS during weight regain suggests an intact leptin response during re-accumulation of fat. Following the pronounced reduction of leptin during weight loss...

Optimal retraining time for regaining functional fitness using multicomponent training after long-term detraining in older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Minyoung; Lim, Taehyun; Lee, Jaehyuk; Kim, Kimyeong; Yoon, BumChul

2017-11-01

Little is known about the optimal retraining time for regaining functional fitness through multicomponent training following long-term detraining in older adults. This study first investigated the time course of functional fitness changes during 12-month multicomponent training, 12-month detraining, and 9-month retraining in 18 older adults (68.33±3.46) and then determined the optimal retraining time for regaining the post-training functional fitness level after a 12-month detraining period. Functional fitness, including lower and upper limb strength, lower and upper limb flexibility, aerobic endurance, and dynamic balance, was assessed at baseline, 12 months post-training, 12 months post-detraining, and 3, 6, and 9 months post-retraining. There were significant increases in all of the functional fitness components except upper limb flexibility at post-training and no significant decreases at post-detraining. For lower and upper limb strength and lower limb flexibility, a 3-month period was required to regain the post-training condition. For aerobic endurance and dynamic balance, a retraining period ≥9months was necessary to regain the post-training functional fitness condition. To regain the post-training condition of all functional fitness components, a retraining period ≥9months was required. This information might be useful for health professionals to encourage older adults not to interrupt retraining until they regain their post-training functional fitness condition. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Metabolic Benefits of Prior Weight Loss with and without Exercise on Subsequent 6-Month Weight Regain.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, Alice S; Serra, Monica C; Goldberg, Andrew P

2018-01-01

To determine the 6-month follow-up effects after intentional 6-month weight loss alone (WL) and after weight loss with aerobic exercise (AEX + WL) on body composition, glucose metabolism, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in older postmenopausal women and to identify the mechanisms for weight regain. Women (n = 65, BMI > 25 kg/m 2 ) underwent maximal oxygen consumption testing, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, computed tomography scans, and oral glucose tolerance tests before and after 6 months of AEX + WL or WL and at 12 months ad libitum follow-up. Insulin sensitivity (M) (hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp) was measured at baseline and 6 months. Thirty WL and thirty-five AEX + WL women completed a follow-up at 12 months. Similar weight loss was observed (-8%) in both groups from 0 to 6 months. Total fat mass, fat-free mass, visceral fat area, subcutaneous abdominal and midthigh fat areas, fasting glucose, insulin levels, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), insulin areas under the curve, and triglyceride levels decreased similarly after WL and AEX + WL and remained lower at 12 months than at baseline, despite weight regain at 12 months. Initial M was associated with weight regain (r = -0.40, P < 0.01). Weight regain was related to independent changes in leptin and HOMA-IR from 6 to 12 months in a multiple regression model (r = 0.77, P < 0.0001). Reductions in body fat and improvements in insulin sensitivity after AEX + WL and WL were maintained at 12 months despite modest weight regain. Baseline insulin resistance partially predicted the magnitude of weight regain in postmenopausal women. © 2017 The Obesity Society.

Analyses of single nucleotide polymorphisms in selected nutrient-sensitive genes in weight-regain prevention: the DIOGENES study.

Science.gov (United States)

Larsen, Lesli H; Angquist, Lars; Vimaleswaran, Karani S; Hager, Jörg; Viguerie, Nathalie; Loos, Ruth J F; Handjieva-Darlenska, Teodora; Jebb, Susan A; Kunesova, Marie; Larsen, Thomas M; Martinez, J Alfredo; Papadaki, Angeliki; Pfeiffer, Andreas F H; van Baak, Marleen A; Sørensen, Thorkild Ia; Holst, Claus; Langin, Dominique; Astrup, Arne; Saris, Wim H M

2012-05-01

Differences in the interindividual response to dietary intervention could be modified by genetic variation in nutrient-sensitive genes. This study examined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in presumed nutrient-sensitive candidate genes for obesity and obesity-related diseases for main and dietary interaction effects on weight, waist circumference, and fat mass regain over 6 mo. In total, 742 participants who had lost ≥ 8% of their initial body weight were randomly assigned to follow 1 of 5 different ad libitum diets with different glycemic indexes and contents of dietary protein. The SNP main and SNP-diet interaction effects were analyzed by using linear regression models, corrected for multiple testing by using Bonferroni correction and evaluated by using quantile-quantile (Q-Q) plots. After correction for multiple testing, none of the SNPs were significantly associated with weight, waist circumference, or fat mass regain. Q-Q plots showed that ALOX5AP rs4769873 showed a higher observed than predicted P value for the association with less waist circumference regain over 6 mo (-3.1 cm/allele; 95% CI: -4.6, -1.6; P/Bonferroni-corrected P = 0.000039/0.076), independently of diet. Additional associations were identified by using Q-Q plots for SNPs in ALOX5AP, TNF, and KCNJ11 for main effects; in LPL and TUB for glycemic index interaction effects on waist circumference regain; in GHRL, CCK, MLXIPL, and LEPR on weight; in PPARC1A, PCK2, ALOX5AP, PYY, and ADRB3 on waist circumference; and in PPARD, FABP1, PLAUR, and LPIN1 on fat mass regain for dietary protein interaction. The observed effects of SNP-diet interactions on weight, waist, and fat mass regain suggest that genetic variation in nutrient-sensitive genes can modify the response to diet. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00390637.

Regaining familiarity with own body after treatment for operable lung cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Missel, M.; Pedersen, J. H.; Hendriksen, C.

2016-01-01

collection, analysis and interpretation followed a phenomenological hermeneutical approach inspired by Ricoeur and the theoretical framework was grounded in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception. The findings reveal the process patients went through in regaining familiarity with their own body after...

Un regain d'espoir pour la production du manioc en Ouganda ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

16 déc. 2010 ... Un regain d'espoir pour la production du manioc en Ouganda ... Depuis 1990, des scientifiques du Namulonge Agricultural and Animal Production .... Tanzanie et au Kenya, une approche décentralisée de l'administration des.

Impact of intra- and extra-osseous soft tissue composition on changes in bone mineral density with weight loss and regain.

Science.gov (United States)

Bosy-Westphal, Anja; Later, Wiebke; Schautz, Britta; Lagerpusch, Merit; Goele, Kristin; Heller, Martin; Glüer, Claus-C; Müller, Manfred J

2011-07-01

Recent studies report a significant gain in bone mineral density (BMD) after diet-induced weight loss. This might be explained by a measurement artefact. We therefore investigated the impact of intra- and extra-osseous soft tissue composition on bone measurements by dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in a longitudinal study of diet-induced weight loss and regain in 55 women and 17 men (19-46 years, BMI 28.2-46.8 kg/m(2)). Total and regional BMD were measured before and after 12.7 ± 2.2 week diet-induced weight loss and 6 months after significant weight regain (≥30%). Hydration of fat free mass (FFM) was assessed by a 3-compartment model. Skeletal muscle (SM) mass, extra-osseous adipose tissue, and bone marrow were measured by whole body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Mean weight loss was -9.2 ± 4.4 kg (P BMAT) were not related to changes in BMD.

Metabolic syndrome, circulating RBP4, testosterone, and SHBG predict weight regain at 6 months after weight loss in men

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Ping; Menheere, Paul P C A; Astrup, Arne

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Weight loss helps reduce the symptoms of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in the obese, but weight regain after active weight loss is common. We investigated the changes and predictive role of circulating adipokines and sex hormones for weight regain in men during dietary intervention...

Regaining momentum for international climate policy beyond Copenhagen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haug Constanze

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract The 'Copenhagen Accord' fails to deliver the political framework for a fair, ambitious and legally-binding international climate agreement beyond 2012. The current climate policy regime dynamics are insufficient to reflect the realities of topical complexity, actor coalitions, as well as financial, legal and institutional challenges in the light of extreme time constraints to avoid 'dangerous' climate change of more than 2°C. In this paper we analyze these stumbling blocks for international climate policy and discuss alternatives in order to regain momentum for future negotiations.

Variation in extracellular matrix genes is associated with weight regain after weight loss in a sex-specific manner

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roumans, Nadia J T; Vink, Roel G; Gielen, Marij

2015-01-01

The extracellular matrix (ECM) of adipocytes is important for body weight regulation. Here, we investigated whether genetic variation in ECM-related genes is associated with weight regain among participants of the European DiOGenes study. Overweight and obese subjects (n = 469, 310 females, 159 m.......40-5.63). Concluding, variants of ECM genes are associated with weight regain after weight loss in a sex-specific manner....

Group cognitive behavioural therapy and weight regain after diet in type 2 diabetes: results from the randomised controlled POWER trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Berk, Kirsten A; Buijks, Hanneke I M; Verhoeven, Adrie J M; Mulder, Monique T; Özcan, Behiye; van 't Spijker, Adriaan; Timman, Reinier; Busschbach, Jan J; Sijbrands, Eric J

2018-04-01

Weight-loss programmes for adults with type 2 diabetes are less effective in the long term owing to regain of weight. Our aim was to determine the 2 year effectiveness of a cognitive behavioural group therapy (group-CBT) programme in weight maintenance after diet-induced weight loss in overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes, using a randomised, parallel, non-blinded, pragmatic study design. We included 158 obese adults (median BMI 36.3 [IQR 32.5-40.0] kg/m 2 ) with type 2 diabetes from the outpatient diabetes clinic of Erasmus MC, the Netherlands, who achieved ≥5% weight loss on an 8 week very low calorie diet. Participants were randomised (stratified by weight loss) to usual care or usual care plus group-CBT (17 group sessions). The primary outcomes were the between-group differences after 2 years in: (1) body weight; and (2) weight regain. Secondary outcomes were HbA 1c levels, insulin dose, plasma lipid levels, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, quality of life, fatigue, physical activity, eating disorders and related cognitions. Data were analysed using linear mixed modelling. During the initial 8 week dieting phase, the control group (n = 75) lost a mean of 10.0 (95% CI 9.1, 10.9) kg and the intervention group (n = 83) lost 9.2 (95% CI 8.4, 10.0) kg (p = 0.206 for the between-group difference). During 2 years of follow-up, mean weight regain was 4.7 (95% CI 3.0, 6.3) kg for the control group and 4.0 (95% CI 2.3, 5.6) kg for the intervention group, with a between-group difference of -0.7 (95% CI -3.1, 1.6) kg (p = 0.6). The mean difference in body weight at 2 years was -1.2 (95% CI -7.7, 5.3) kg (p = 0.7). None of the secondary outcomes differed between the two groups. Despite increased treatment contact, a group-CBT programme for long-term weight maintenance after an initial ≥5% weight loss from dieting in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes was not superior to usual care alone. Trialregister.nl NTR2264 FUNDING: The

Most patients regain prefracture basic mobility after hip fracture surgery in a fast-track programme

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristensen, Morten Tange; Kehlet, Henrik

2012-01-01

Treatment of patients with hip fracture has improved over the past decade. Still, some patients do not regain independent mobility within their primary hospital stay even if they follow a multimodal fast-track surgical programme. The aim of the present article was to examine the validity of the p......Treatment of patients with hip fracture has improved over the past decade. Still, some patients do not regain independent mobility within their primary hospital stay even if they follow a multimodal fast-track surgical programme. The aim of the present article was to examine the validity...... of the preliminary prefracture New Mobility Score (NMS), age and fracture type as independent predictors of in-hospital outcome after hip fracture surgery....

Computer-generated versus nurse-determined strategy for incubator humidity and time to regain birthweight

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Helder, Onno K.; Mulder, Paul G. H.; van Goudoever, Johannes B.

2008-01-01

To compare effects on premature infants' weight gain of a computer-generated and a nurse-determined incubator humidity strategy. An optimal humidity protocol is thought to reduce time to regain birthweight. Prospective randomized controlled design. Level IIIC neonatal intensive care unit in the

Trafikken over Kattegat : i historisk og transportpolitisk betydning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Mogens Nørgaard

2013-01-01

The history about the Danish traffic across the Kattegat since the industrial revolution broke througt in Denmark in the 19th century. The political considerations concerning traffical developement during the last 100 years are described, and the possibilities for building a bridge across...

[Acupuncture therapy for regaining consciousness in terms of acupoint location, needle insertion and needle manipulation].

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Xianggang; Gu, Wenlong; Ma, Fen; Du, Yuzheng; Zhao, Qi

2015-03-01

Acupuncture therapy for regaining consciousness activates soreness, numbness, distention, heaviness, radiating and moving, electric shock and ant climbing sensations at the specific acupoints in the stroke patients. Radiating and moving sensations are the summary of needling sensations such as soreness, numbness and twitching presenting during lifting and thrusting manipulation. These sensations are the essential factors of the therapeutic effect of regaining consciousness. Radiating sensation refers to the conduction along meridians and radiation of soreness and numbness. Moving sensation refers to the local muscular twitching at acupoints and the involuntary movement of limbs, joints and the distal. Acupuncture at the specific acupoints achieves radiating and moving sensations for promoting the circulation in meridians, regulating qi and mind and balancing yin and yang in stroke patients. This therapy was introduced in the paper in view of acupoint location, needle insertion and manipulation.

Selective regain of egfr gene copies in CD44+/CD24-/low breast cancer cellular model MDA-MB-468

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agelopoulos, Konstantin; Buerger, Horst; Brandt, Burkhard; Greve, Burkhard; Schmidt, Hartmut; Pospisil, Heike; Kurtz, Stefan; Bartkowiak, Kai; Andreas, Antje; Wieczorek, Marek; Korsching, Eberhard

2010-01-01

Increased transcription of oncogenes like the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is frequently caused by amplification of the whole gene or at least of regulatory sequences. Aim of this study was to pinpoint mechanistic parameters occurring during egfr copy number gains leading to a stable EGFR overexpression and high sensitivity to extracellular signalling. A deeper understanding of those marker events might improve early diagnosis of cancer in suspect lesions, early detection of cancer progression and the prediction of egfr targeted therapies. The basal-like/stemness type breast cancer cell line subpopulation MDA-MB-468 CD44 high /CD24 -/low , carrying high egfr amplifications, was chosen as a model system in this study. Subclones of the heterogeneous cell line expressing low and high EGF receptor densities were isolated by cell sorting. Genomic profiling was carried out for these by means of SNP array profiling, qPCR and FISH. Cell cycle analysis was performed using the BrdU quenching technique. Low and high EGFR expressing MDA-MB-468 CD44 + /CD24 -/low subpopulations separated by cell sorting showed intermediate and high copy numbers of egfr, respectively. However, during cell culture an increase solely for egfr gene copy numbers in the intermediate subpopulation occurred. This shift was based on the formation of new cells which regained egfr gene copies. By two parametric cell cycle analysis clonal effects mediated through growth advantage of cells bearing higher egfr gene copy numbers could most likely be excluded for being the driving force. Subsequently, the detection of a fragile site distal to the egfr gene, sustaining uncapped telomere-less chromosomal ends, the ladder-like structure of the intrachromosomal egfr amplification and a broader range of egfr copy numbers support the assumption that dynamic chromosomal rearrangements, like breakage-fusion-bridge-cycles other than proliferation drive the gain of egfr copies. Progressive genome modulation

Personal resources and support when regaining the ability to work: an interview study with Exhaustion Disorder patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Norlund, Sofia; Fjellman-Wiklund, Anncristine; Nordin, Maria; Stenlund, Therese; Ahlgren, Christina

2013-06-01

The aim of the study was to explore experiences and thoughts in the process of returning to work in employed patients with Exhaustion Disorder. Twelve patients with Exhaustion Disorder (burnout) who had been referred to a Stress Rehabilitation Clinic were interviewed. All patients were employed but a majority was on full or part-time sick leave. Grounded Theory was used as the qualitative method. A core category, regaining the ability to work, was developed. Alongside, two categories, internal resources and the external support system, were experienced as being important to the process. The internal resources were expressed through three key features (sub-categories), perceived validation, insights and adaptive coping abilities. The external support system was diverse and described by the sub-categories practical/structural and/or emotional support. Four external support actors were identified; the workplace, health care, the Social Insurance Agency, and the union. The supervisor was described as the most important external actor. Internal and external resources are intertwined in the process of regaining the ability to work. The internal resources and external support can directly increase the probability to regain the ability to work. Moreover, these resources can affect each other and thus indirectly have an effect on the process.

Changes in body composition and fat distribution in response to weight loss and weight regain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooy, van der K.

1993-01-01

This thesis describes the effects of weight loss and subsequent weight regain on body composition, fat distribution and resting energy expenditure in moderately obese men and moderately obese premenopausal women. Participants were subjected to a controlled 4.2 MJ/day energy deficit diet for

Long-lasting improvements in liver fat and metabolism despite body weight regain after dietary weight loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Haufe, Sven; Haas, Verena; Utz, Wolfgang; Birkenfeld, Andreas L; Jeran, Stephanie; Böhnke, Jana; Mähler, Anja; Luft, Friedrich C; Schulz-Menger, Jeanette; Boschmann, Michael; Jordan, Jens; Engeli, Stefan

2013-11-01

Weight loss reduces abdominal and intrahepatic fat, thereby improving metabolic and cardiovascular risk. Yet, many patients regain weight after successful diet-induced weight loss. Long-term changes in abdominal and liver fat, along with liver test results and insulin resistance, are not known. We analyzed 50 overweight to obese subjects (46 ± 9 years of age; BMI, 32.5 ± 3.3 kg/m2; women, 77%) who had participated in a 6-month hypocaloric diet and were randomized to either reduced carbohydrates or reduced fat content. Before, directly after diet, and at an average of 24 (range, 17-36) months follow-up, we assessed body fat distribution by magnetic resonance imaging and markers of liver function and insulin resistance. Body weight decreased with diet but had increased again at follow-up. Subjects also partially regained abdominal subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue. In contrast, intrahepatic fat decreased with diet and remained reduced at follow-up (7.8 ± 9.8% [baseline], 4.5 ± 5.9% [6 months], and 4.7 ± 5.9% [follow-up]). Similar patterns were observed for markers of liver function, whole-body insulin sensitivity, and hepatic insulin resistance. Changes in intrahepatic fat und intrahepatic function were independent of macronutrient composition during intervention and were most effective in subjects with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease at baseline. A 6-month hypocaloric diet induced improvements in hepatic fat, liver test results, and insulin resistance despite regaining of weight up to 2 years after the active intervention. Body weight and adiposity measurements may underestimate beneficial long-term effects of dietary interventions.

Resistant starch and exercise independently attenuate weight regain on a high fat diet in a rat model of obesity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johnson Ginger C

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Long-term weight reduction remains elusive for many obese individuals. Resistant starch (RS and exercise may be useful for weight maintenance. The effects of RS, with or without exercise, on weight regain was examined during relapse to obesity on a high carbohydrate, high fat (HC/HF diet. Methods Obesity-prone rats were fed ad libitum for 16 weeks then weight reduced on a low fat diet to induce a 17% body weight loss (weight reduced rats. Weight reduced rats were maintained on an energy-restricted low fat diet for 18 weeks, with or without a daily bout of treadmill exercise. Rats were then allowed free access to HC/HF diet containing low (0.3% or high (5.9% levels of RS. Weight regain, energy balance, body composition, adipocyte cellularity, and fuel utilization were monitored as rats relapsed to obesity and surpassed their original, obese weight. Results Both RS and exercise independently attenuated weight regain by reducing the energy gap between the drive to eat and suppressed energy requirements. Exercise attenuated the deposition of lean mass during relapse, whereas its combination with RS sustained lean mass accrual as body weight returned. Early in relapse, RS lowered insulin levels and reduced the deposition of fat in subcutaneous adipose tissue. Exercise cessation at five weeks of relapse led to increased weight gain, body fat, subcutaneous adipocytes, and decreased lean mass; all detrimental consequences to overall metabolic health. Conclusions These data are the first to show the complimentary effects of dietary RS and regular exercise in countering the metabolic drive to regain weight following weight loss and suggest that exercise cessation, in the context of relapse on a HC/HF diet, may have dire metabolic consequences.

Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitor Sitagliptin Prevented Weight Regain in Obese Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Previously Treated with Liraglutide: A Pilot Randomized Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferjan, Simona; Janez, Andrej; Jensterle, Mojca

2017-12-01

Weight loss is often nonsustainable after liraglutide cessation. The present study is the first insight into the potential prevention of weight regain in obese subjects who have been withdrawn from liraglutide. We evaluated whether dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor sitagliptin in adjunct to metformin prevents body weight regain more effectively than metformin alone in obese polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) previously treated with liraglutide. A 12-week prospective randomized open-label study was conducted with 24 obese women with PCOS who had been pretreated with liraglutide 3.0 mg due to antiobesity management (aged 34.3 ± 6.8 years, body mass index [BMI] 36.3 ± 5.2 kg/m 2 , mean ± standard deviation). They were randomized to combined treatment (COMBO) with sitagliptin 100 mg per day (QD) and metformin (MET) 1000 mg twice daily (BID) (n = 12) or MET 1000 mg BID (n = 12). Lifestyle intervention was promoted in both groups. The primary outcome was change in anthropometric measures of obesity. Women treated with MET regain 4.7 ± 2.7 kg (P = 0.002) compared with a 0.9 ± 2.5 kg in COMBO (P = 0.147). BMI increased for 1.7 ± 0.9 kg/m 2 in MET (P = 0.002) compared with 0.3 ± 0.8 kg/m 2 increase in COMBO (P = 0.136). MET group regain 4.5% ± 2.5% of body weight as opposed to 0.8% ± 2.6% in COMBO. The between-treatment differences were significant for weight change (P weight change (P weight regain in obese women with PCOS previously treated with liraglutide.

Long-Lasting Improvements in Liver Fat and Metabolism Despite Body Weight Regain After Dietary Weight Loss

Science.gov (United States)

Haufe, Sven; Haas, Verena; Utz, Wolfgang; Birkenfeld, Andreas L.; Jeran, Stephanie; Böhnke, Jana; Mähler, Anja; Luft, Friedrich C.; Schulz-Menger, Jeanette; Boschmann, Michael; Jordan, Jens; Engeli, Stefan

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE Weight loss reduces abdominal and intrahepatic fat, thereby improving metabolic and cardiovascular risk. Yet, many patients regain weight after successful diet-induced weight loss. Long-term changes in abdominal and liver fat, along with liver test results and insulin resistance, are not known. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed 50 overweight to obese subjects (46 ± 9 years of age; BMI, 32.5 ± 3.3 kg/m2; women, 77%) who had participated in a 6-month hypocaloric diet and were randomized to either reduced carbohydrates or reduced fat content. Before, directly after diet, and at an average of 24 (range, 17–36) months follow-up, we assessed body fat distribution by magnetic resonance imaging and markers of liver function and insulin resistance. RESULTS Body weight decreased with diet but had increased again at follow-up. Subjects also partially regained abdominal subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue. In contrast, intrahepatic fat decreased with diet and remained reduced at follow-up (7.8 ± 9.8% [baseline], 4.5 ± 5.9% [6 months], and 4.7 ± 5.9% [follow-up]). Similar patterns were observed for markers of liver function, whole-body insulin sensitivity, and hepatic insulin resistance. Changes in intrahepatic fat und intrahepatic function were independent of macronutrient composition during intervention and were most effective in subjects with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease at baseline. CONCLUSIONS A 6-month hypocaloric diet induced improvements in hepatic fat, liver test results, and insulin resistance despite regaining of weight up to 2 years after the active intervention. Body weight and adiposity measurements may underestimate beneficial long-term effects of dietary interventions. PMID:23963894

The Economic Impact of Weight Regain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caroline E. Sheppard

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Obesity is well known for being associated with significant economic repercussions. Bariatric surgery is the only evidence-based solution to this problem as well as a cost-effective method of addressing the concern. Numerous authors have calculated the cost effectiveness and cost savings of bariatric surgery; however, to date the economic impact of weight regain as a component of overall cost has not been addressed. Methods. The literature search was conducted to elucidate the direct costs of obesity and primary bariatric surgery, the rate of weight recidivism and surgical revision, and any costs therein. Results. The quoted cost of obesity in Canada was $2.0 billion–$6.7 billion in 2013 CAD. The median percentage of bariatric procedures that fail due to weight gain or insufficient weight loss is 20% (average: 21.1%±10.1%, range: 5.2–39, n=10. Revision of primary surgeries on average ranges from 2.5% to 18.4%, and depending on the procedure accounts for an additional cost between $14,000 and $50,000 USD per patient. Discussion. There was a significant deficit of the literature pertaining to the cost of revision surgery as compared with primary bariatric surgery. As such, the cycle of weight recidivism and bariatric revisions has not as of yet been introduced into any previous cost analysis of bariatric surgery.

Temenos regained: reflections on the absence of the analyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Abramovitch, Henry

2002-10-01

The importance of the temenos as a metaphor to conceptualize therapeutic containment is discussed. Jung drew the analogy between the consulting room and the temenos, at the centre of the Greek Temple as a sacred and inviolate place where the analysand might encounter the Self. Although Jung believed that whether called or not, the gods would appear, under certain conditions, patients may experience 'temenos lost', the loss of the holding function of the analytic space. Two cases are presented in which temenos issues played a central role. In one case, an unorthodox method was used to preserve the analytic container during the absence of the analyst and in the other, the impact of an extra-analytical encounter had a dramatic effect on the holding function of the temenos. A discussion is presented of the appropriate circumstances in which analysts may deviate from traditional analytic practice in order to preserve the temenos and transform a 'temenos lost' into a 'temenos regained'.

The Immune System in Tissue Environments Regaining Homeostasis after Injury: Is "Inflammation" Always Inflammation?

Science.gov (United States)

Kulkarni, Onkar P; Lichtnekert, Julia; Anders, Hans-Joachim; Mulay, Shrikant R

2016-01-01

Inflammation is a response to infections or tissue injuries. Inflammation was once defined by clinical signs, later by the presence of leukocytes, and nowadays by expression of "proinflammatory" cytokines and chemokines. But leukocytes and cytokines often have rather anti-inflammatory, proregenerative, and homeostatic effects. Is there a need to redefine "inflammation"? In this review, we discuss the functions of "inflammatory" mediators/regulators of the innate immune system that determine tissue environments to fulfill the need of the tissue while regaining homeostasis after injury.

The Physics of Toppling and Regaining Balance during a Pirouette.

Science.gov (United States)

Lott, Melanie B; Laws, Kenneth L

2012-12-01

One of the most common movements in dance is a turn around a vertical axis with one supporting foot on the floor--a pirouette. If the pirouette is not performed with the body on balance, it is not considered successful. Dancers are often taught to perform successful pirouettes by beginning the movement on balance and then keeping the body in that configuration, as opposed to correcting for an imbalance with small adjustments during the turn. Many, even advanced, dancers have significant difficulty performing more than two or three turns in a pirouette before losing balance, despite continued trial and error efforts to improve. To describe the mechanics of toppling and control of toppling during a pirouette, a theoretical model of a dancer in standard pirouette position was created, and an experimental study of real dancers performing pirouettes was conducted. Body segment parameters for the model (mass, length, etc.) were based on anatomical data and adjusted for sex, total body mass, and height. The principal moments of inertia were determined for several hypothetical dancers, and rigid body equations of motion numerically solved to express topple angle vs. time. When dancers reach too large a topple angle, they are forced to compensate by either hopping on the supporting foot in an attempt to regain balance or terminating the turn. The angle at which dancers lose stability and feel inclined to hop (θmax) was determined experimentally through a video analysis of nine intermediate to advanced ballet dancers' pirouettes (8 female, 1 male; 16 ± 2.3 years of age). The dancers hopped on the supporting foot after the body reached an average angle of 9.3 ± 1.9° from the vertical. With an average spin rate of 1.7 rev/s, it was found that a "rigid body" dancer (male or female) would need to begin the pirouette displaced less than one degree from the vertical in order to perform more than a double pirouette before reaching θmax. The results of this study demonstrate

Does cognitive-behavioural therapy promote meaning making? A preliminary test in the context of geriatric depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Holland, Jason M; Chong, Gabriella; Currier, Joseph M; O'Hara, Ruth; Gallagher-Thompson, Dolores

2015-03-01

This study examined the extent to which cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for geriatric depression promoted meaning made of stress. Fifty-one participants received CBT and were assessed at pre- and post-treatment. The primary outcome was the Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale (ISLES) and demographic factors were examined as moderators of changes over time. Those with more education showed improvement in their ability to regain positive values, worldviews, and purpose in life after a stressor. It appears that CBT promotes some forms of meaning made of stress for those with higher education. Cognitive-behavioural therapy as it is routinely practiced may help highly educated older adults regain their Footing in the World (e.g., maintain positive values, worldviews, and purpose in life) in the aftermath of a stressful life event. Cognitive-behavioural therapy appears to offer fewer gains for less educated older adults (in terms of Footing in the World) as well as for other aspects of meaning-making, such as the ability to 'make sense' of a significant stressor. Although more empirical work is necessary, meaning-oriented interventions (e.g., 're-authoring' a fragmented self-narrative; Neimeyer, 2009, p. 97) hold promise as useful adjuncts to routine therapy that could augment outcomes. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

An approach to the concept and evolution of the logistic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Consuelo Ruiz-Cárdenas

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Nowadays the logistic, has become the new paradigm for the competitive advantages generation, so the concept of supply chain management SCM is established as an instrument, througt in the organizations board the supply the creation, distribution and sale of their products; since the real competence ins not carried out in an isolated form among enterprises rather it is perform among supply chain management.

A comparison of categorization criteria used to define successful weight loss maintainers and regainers in the Look AHEAD and DPP trials

Science.gov (United States)

Introduction: While a variety of lifestyle interventions have resulted in successful weight loss, effective strategies to maintain weight loss are lacking, with many interventions reporting high rates of regain. Identifying characteristics of individuals who successfully maintained their weight afte...

Group cognitive behavioural therapy and weight regain after diet in type 2 diabetes: results from the randomised controlled POWER trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

K.A.C. Berk (Kirsten); H. Buijks (Hanneke); A.J.M. Verhoeven (Adrie); Mulder, M.T. (Monique T.); B. Özcan (Behiye); van ’T Spijker, A. (Adriaan); R. Timman (Reinier); J.J. van Busschbach (Jan); E.J.G. Sijbrands (Eric)

2018-01-01

textabstractAims/hypothesis: Weight-loss programmes for adults with type 2 diabetes are less effective in the long term owing to regain of weight. Our aim was to determine the 2 year effectiveness of a cognitive behavioural group therapy (group-CBT) programme in weight maintenance after diet-induced

Influence of aramid fiber moisture regain during atmospheric plasma treatment on aging of treatment effects on surface wettability and bonding strength to epoxy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ren Yu; Wang Chunxia; Qiu Yiping

2007-01-01

One of the main differences between a low-pressure plasma treatment and an atmospheric pressure plasma treatment is that in atmosphere, the substrate material may absorb significant amount of water which may potentially influence the plasma treatment effects. This paper investigates how the moisture absorbed by aramid fibers during the atmospheric pressure plasma treatment influences the aging behavior of the modified surfaces. Kevlar 49 fibers with different moisture regains (MR) (0.5, 3.5 and 5.5%, respectively) are treated with atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) with helium as the carrier gas and oxygen as the treatment gas. Surface wettability and chemical compositions, and interfacial shear strengths (IFSS) to epoxy for the aramid fibers in all groups are determined using water contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and micro-bond pull out tests, respectively. Immediately after the plasma treatment, the treated fibers have substantially lower water contact angles, higher surface oxygen and nitrogen contents, and larger IFSS to epoxy than those of the control group. At the end of 30 day aging period, the fibers treated with 5.5% moisture regain had a lower water contact angle and more polar groups on the fiber surface, leading to 75% improvement of IFSS over the control fibers, while those for the 0.5 and 3.5% moisture regain groups were only 30%

Genetic Predisposition to Weight Loss and Regain With Lifestyle Intervention: Analyses From the Diabetes Prevention Program and the Look AHEAD Randomized Controlled Trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Papandonatos, George D; Pan, Qing; Pajewski, Nicholas M; Delahanty, Linda M; Peter, Inga; Erar, Bahar; Ahmad, Shafqat; Harden, Maegan; Chen, Ling; Fontanillas, Pierre; Wagenknecht, Lynne E; Kahn, Steven E; Wing, Rena R; Jablonski, Kathleen A; Huggins, Gordon S; Knowler, William C; Florez, Jose C; McCaffery, Jeanne M; Franks, Paul W

2015-12-01

Clinically relevant weight loss is achievable through lifestyle modification, but unintentional weight regain is common. We investigated whether recently discovered genetic variants affect weight loss and/or weight regain during behavioral intervention. Participants at high-risk of type 2 diabetes (Diabetes Prevention Program [DPP]; N = 917/907 intervention/comparison) or with type 2 diabetes (Look AHEAD [Action for Health in Diabetes]; N = 2,014/1,892 intervention/comparison) were from two parallel arm (lifestyle vs. comparison) randomized controlled trials. The associations of 91 established obesity-predisposing loci with weight loss across 4 years and with weight regain across years 2-4 after a minimum of 3% weight loss were tested. Each copy of the minor G allele of MTIF3 rs1885988 was consistently associated with greater weight loss following lifestyle intervention over 4 years across the DPP and Look AHEAD. No such effect was observed across comparison arms, leading to a nominally significant single nucleotide polymorphism×treatment interaction (P = 4.3 × 10(-3)). However, this effect was not significant at a study-wise significance level (Bonferroni threshold P lifestyle. © 2015 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered.

Long-Lasting Improvements in Liver Fat and Metabolism Despite Body Weight Regain After Dietary Weight Loss

OpenAIRE

Haufe, Sven; Haas, Verena; Utz, Wolfgang; Birkenfeld, Andreas L.; Jeran, Stephanie; Böhnke, Jana; Mähler, Anja; Luft, Friedrich C.; Schulz-Menger, Jeanette; Boschmann, Michael; Jordan, Jens; Engeli, Stefan

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE Weight loss reduces abdominal and intrahepatic fat, thereby improving metabolic and cardiovascular risk. Yet, many patients regain weight after successful diet-induced weight loss. Long-term changes in abdominal and liver fat, along with liver test results and insulin resistance, are not known. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed 50 overweight to obese subjects (46 ± 9 years of age; BMI, 32.5 ± 3.3 kg/m2; women, 77%) who had participated in a 6-month hypocaloric diet and were ra...

Self-monitoring of spontaneous physical activity and sedentary behavior to prevent weight regain in older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicklas, Barbara J; Gaukstern, Jill E; Beavers, Kristen M; Newman, Jill C; Leng, Xiaoyan; Rejeski, W Jack

2014-06-01

The objective was to determine whether adding a self-regulatory intervention (SRI) focused on self-monitoring of spontaneous physical activity (SPA) and sedentary behavior to a standard weight loss intervention improved maintenance of lost weight. Older (65-79 years), obese (BMI = 30-40 kg/m(2) ) adults (n = 48) were randomized to a 5-month weight loss intervention involving a hypocaloric diet (DIET) and aerobic exercise (EX) with or without the SRI to promote SPA and decrease sedentary behavior (SRI + DIET + EX compared with DIET + EX). Following the weight loss phase, both groups transitioned to self-selected diet and exercise behavior during a 5-month follow-up. Throughout the 10-months, the SRI + DIET + EX group utilized real-time accelerometer feedback for self-monitoring. There was an overall group by time effect of the SRI (P DIET + EX lost less weight and regained more weight than SRI + DIET + EX. The average weight regain during follow-up was 1.3 kg less in the SRI + DIET + EX group. Individuals in this group maintained approximately 10% lower weight than baseline compared with those in the DIET + EX group whom maintained approximately 5% lower weight than baseline. Addition of a SRI, designed to increase SPA and decrease sedentary behavior, to a standard weight loss intervention enhanced successful maintenance of lost weight. Copyright © 2014 The Obesity Society.

Exercise Decreases Lipogenic Gene Expression in Adipose Tissue and Alters Adipocyte Cellularity during Weight Regain After Weight Loss

OpenAIRE

Giles, Erin D.; Steig, Amy J.; Jackman, Matthew R.; Higgins, Janine A.; Johnson, Ginger C.; Lindstrom, Rachel C.; MacLean, Paul S.

2016-01-01

Exercise is a potent strategy to facilitate long-term weight maintenance. In addition to increasing energy expenditure and reducing appetite, exercise also favors the oxidation of dietary fat, which likely helps prevent weight re-gain. It is unclear whether this exercise-induced metabolic shift is due to changes in energy balance, or whether exercise imparts additional adaptations in the periphery that limit the storage and favor the oxidation of dietary fat. To answer this question, adipose ...

Creating a Global Consciousness by Embracing a World of Women: A Pedagogical Strategy Dedicated to Regaining the Momentum for Women's Rights

Science.gov (United States)

Edmonds, Regina M.

2007-01-01

If we are to regain some of the energy which characterized the Women's Movement during its earliest years and again during the 1960's and 1970's, we must endeavor to raise awareness among young people about the work for social justice that remains undone and we must find ways to inspire them to re-embrace activism and to develop, what Smyser…

Older adults prioritize postural stability in the anterior-posterior direction to regain balance following volitional lateral step.

Science.gov (United States)

Porter, Shaun; Nantel, Julie

2015-02-01

Postural control in the medial-lateral (ML) direction is of particular interest regarding the assessment of changes in postural control, as it is highly related to the risk of falling. To determine the postural strategies used to regain balance following a voluntary lateral step and compare these strategies between young and older adults. Sixteen older adults (60-90 years) and 14 young adults (20-40 years) were asked to stand quietly for 30s, walk in place and then take a lateral step and stand quietly (30s). Balance Post was divided into 10s intervals. Center of pressure displacement (CoP) and velocity (VCoP) in the anterio-posterior (AP) and ML directions were analyzed. In both groups, CoP and VCoP in AP and ML increased in Post1 compared to Pre (Padults, VCoP-Post2, Post3 ML were larger than Pre (P=0.01) in older adults. Age correlated with all VCoP (Pre and Post) in both ML (Padults, older adults use different postural strategies in ML and AP directions and prioritized postural stability in the AP direction to recover balance after completing a lateral step. In the ML direction, older adults took up to 30s to regain balance. Considering that age was related to larger CoP displacement and velocity, the AP strategy to recover postural balance following a lateral step could become less efficient as older adults age and therefore increasing the risk of falls. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Suboptimal Weight Loss and Weight Regain after Gastric Bypass Surgery?Postoperative Status of Energy Intake, Eating Behavior, Physical Activity, and Psychometrics

OpenAIRE

Amundsen, Tina; Str?mmen, Magnus; Martins, Catia

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: Suboptimal weight loss (SWL) and weight regain (WR) after gastric bypass surgery (GB) remains poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to compare GB patients experiencing SWL or significant WR (SigWR) with successful controls, regarding postoperative food intake, eating behavior, physical activity (PA), and psychometrics. METHODS: Forty-nine patients with >1 year post-surgery were classified as either experiencing SWL (excess body weight loss, EWL,

Dietary Supplementation at Home Improves the Regain of Lean Body Mass After Surgery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Martin Bach; Hessov, Ib

1997-01-01

Little is known about nutritional intake after discharge though it takes months to regain preoperative weight after gastrointestinal surgery. We studied whether a 4-mo intervention with dietary advice and protein-rich supplements would increase nutritional intake and gain in lean body mass (LBM...... with the intake of the general population that did not increase further. During the 4 m, the intervention patients had an increased intake of protein (+22%) and energy (+16%), and an enhanced gain of LBM after 2 mo (control 0.8 kg versus intervention 2.1 kg; P = 0.009). After the 4-mo intervention, both LBM...... and fat were gained (control 1.7 kg LBM and 0.2 kg fat versus intervention 3.1 kg LBM and 1.5 kg fat; LBM: P = 0.029 and fat: P = 0.056). At discharge patients should increase protein intake to 1.5 g·kg−1·d−1 for 2 mo, e.g., by taking protein-rich liquid supplements....

Safety and efficacy of eculizumab in anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive refractory generalised myasthenia gravis (REGAIN)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Howard, James F; Utsugisawa, Kimiaki; Benatar, Michael

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Complement is likely to have a role in refractory generalised myasthenia gravis, but no approved therapies specifically target this system. Results from a phase 2 study suggested that eculizumab, a terminal complement inhibitor, produced clinically meaningful improvements in patients...... with anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive refractory generalised myasthenia gravis. We further assessed the efficacy and safety of eculizumab in this patient population in a phase 3 trial. METHODS: We did a phase 3, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre study (REGAIN) in 76...... hospitals and specialised clinics in 17 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Eligible patients were aged at least 18 years, with a Myasthenia Gravis-Activities of Daily Living (MG-ADL) score of 6 or more, Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) class II-IV disease...

Emancipatory actions displayed by multi-ethnic women: "Regaining control of my health care".

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, Ivy M

2010-11-01

Despite the recognized importance of patient involvement in primary care interactions, little information describing women's needs and expectations for these interactions is available. This participatory action study was based in Critical Action Theory and designed to describe any emancipatory interests that surfaced when eight ethnically diverse women examined their interactions with primary care nurse practitioners (PCNPs) over the course of five successive focus group meetings. Focus group meeting transcripts, field notes, interaction notations, seating maps, and first impression summaries. Participants wanted to learn how to "stand up" for themselves in primary care interactions. They believed this could be accomplished by developing a positive sense of self-esteem. Ultimately, they identified the right way to "talk back" to clinicians and created a method for regaining control of their own health care and maintaining equality in interactions with primary care clinicians. Nurse practitioners working in the primary setting are especially well situated to support self-management and foster patient participation by women as they live with chronic disease, engage in health promotion activities, and deal with common symptomatic problems for themselves and their families. ©2010 The Author Journal compilation ©2010 American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Suboptimal Weight Loss and Weight Regain after Gastric Bypass Surgery-Postoperative Status of Energy Intake, Eating Behavior, Physical Activity, and Psychometrics.

Science.gov (United States)

Amundsen, Tina; Strømmen, Magnus; Martins, Catia

2017-05-01

Suboptimal weight loss (SWL) and weight regain (WR) after gastric bypass surgery (GB) remains poorly understood. This study aims to compare GB patients experiencing SWL or significant WR (SigWR) with successful controls, regarding postoperative food intake, eating behavior, physical activity (PA), and psychometrics. Forty-nine patients with >1 year post-surgery were classified as either experiencing SWL (excess body weight loss, EWL, <50%, n = 22) or SigWR (total weight regain ≥15%, n = 38), with respective control groups. Energy intake (EI) was measured with a Food Frequency Questionnaire, eating behavior using the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire and the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, and PA using both SenseWear Armbands and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Eating disorders, depression, and quality of life (QoL) were measured using the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory II, and Impact of Weight on Quality of Life, respectively. EI, macronutrient distribution, and meal frequency were similar among groups. However, disinhibited eating behavior score was higher, while most subcategories from IWQOL were significantly lower in both SWL and SigWR groups compared with their respective controls. PA was significantly lower in the SWL and SigWR groups compared with the respective controls. There were no differences between groups regarding depression. Lower PA levels, disordered eating behavior and lower QoL are associated with unsuccessful weigh loss outcome after GB surgery. Longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the potential causal relationship between the previously described variables and SWL/SigWR after GB.

The new Epinal image: the regained confidence and quality; La nouvelle image d'Epinal: la confiance et la qualite retrouvees

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Renoult, F.; Levitchi, M.; Hajj, L.E.; Marchesi, V.; Buchheit, I.; Noel, A.; Simon, J.M.; Peiffert, D.; Marchal, C. [Centre Alexis-Vautrin, 54 - Nancy (France); Perrin, E. [Centre hospitalier Jean-Monnet, 88 - Epinal, (France)

2010-10-15

After the closing down of the Epinal radiotherapy department, the Nancy Alexis-Vautrin was entrusted to take up its activity again. It implemented a quality approach for equipment, organization and practices, in order to regain the confidence of patients in radiotherapy. This comprises a homogenisation of practices, a document management for technical protocols and procedures between both centres. A return-on-experience committee and an analysis of failure modes and of their effects and criticality have been implemented to reduce the error risk. Patient confidence has been assessed by the department psychologist and questionnaire results are assessed every three months. Short communication

Maintain and Regain Well Clear: Maneuver Guidance Designs for Pilots Performing the Detect-and-Avoid Task

Science.gov (United States)

Monk, Kevin J.; Roberts, Zachary

2017-01-01

In order to support the future expansion and integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), ongoing research efforts have sought to produce findings that inform the minimum display information elements required for acceptable UAS pilot response times and traffic avoidance. Previous simulations have revealed performance benefits associated with DAA displays containing predictive information and suggestive maneuver guidance tools in the form of banding. The present study investigated the impact of various maneuver guidance display configurations on detect-and-avoid (DAA) task performance in a simulated airspace environment. UAS pilots ability to maintain DAA well clear was compared between displays with either the presence or absence of green DAA bands, which indicated conflict-free flight regions. Additional display comparisons assessed pilots ability to regain DAA well clear with two different guidance presentations designed to aid in DAA well clear recovery during critical encounters. Performance implications and display considerations for future UAS DAA systems are discussed.

Post-bariatric surgery weight regain: evaluation of nutritional profile of candidate patients for endoscopic argon plasma coagulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Cambi, Maria Paula Carlini; Marchesini, Simone Dallegrave; Baretta, Giorgio Alfredo Pedroso

2015-01-01

Bariatric surgery is effective treatment for weight loss, but demand continuous nutritional care and physical activity. They regain weight happens with inadequate diets, physical inactivity and high alcohol consumption. To investigate in patients undergoing Roux-Y-of gastroplasty weight regain, nutritional deficiencies, candidates for the treatment with endoscopic argon plasma, the diameter of the gastrojejunostomy and the size of the gastric pouch at the time of treatment with plasma. A prospective 59 patients non-randomized study with no control group undergoing gastroplasty with recurrence of weight and candidates for the endoscopic procedure of argon plasma was realized. The surgical evaluation consisted of investigation of complications in the digestive system and verification of the increased diameter of the gastrojejunostomy. Nutritional evaluation was based on body mass index at the time of operation, in the minimum BMI achieved after and in which BMI was when making the procedure with plasma. The laboratory tests included hemoglobin, erythrocyte volume, ferritin, vitamin D, B12, iron, calcium, zinc and serum albumin. Clinical analysis was based on scheduled follow-up. Of the 59 selected, five were men and 51 women; were included 49 people (four men and 44 women) with all the complete data. The exclusion was due to the lack of some of the laboratory tests. Of this total 19 patients (38.7%) had a restrictive ring, while 30 (61.2%) did not. Iron deficiency anemia was common; 30 patients (61.2%) were below 30 with ferritin (unit); 35 (71.4%) with vitamin B12 were below 300 pg/ml; vitamin D3 deficiency occurred in more than 90%; there were no cases of deficiency of protein, calcium and zinc; glucose levels were above 99 mg/dl in three patients (6.12%). Clinically all had complaints of labile memory, irritability and poor concentration. All reported that they stopped treatment with the multidisciplinary team in the first year after the operation. The profile of

[Clinical efficacy observation of acupuncture at suliao (GV 25) on improving regain of consciousness from coma in severe craniocerebral injury].

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Kai-Sheng; Song, Jian-Hua; Huang, Tiao-Hua; Huang, Zhi-Hua; Yu, Lu-Chang; Zheng, Wei-Ping; Chen, Xiao-Shan; Liu, Chuan

2014-06-01

To compare the clinical therapeutic effects differences between acupuncture at Suliao (GV 25) and Shuigou (GV 26) on promoting regain of consciousness from coma in severe craniocerebral injury. Based on regular emergency treatments of neurosurgery, eighty-two cases of craniocerebral injury who were under stable condition were randomly divided into an observation group (42 cases) and a control group (40 cases). Suliao (GV 25) was selected as main aupoint, while Laogong (PC 8) and Yongquan (KI 1), etc. were selected as adjuvant acupoints and Neiguan (PC 6), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Yifeng (TE 17) and Wangu (GB 12), etc. were selected as matching acupoints in the observation group where a strong needle manipulation was applied to improve the regain of consciousness. The main acupoint of Shuigou (GV 26) along with identical adjuvant acupoints and matching acupoints in the observation group were selected in the control group with identical strong needle manipulation. The treatment was given once a day in both groups, five times per week and ten times were considered as one session. The immediate clinical symptoms after acupuncture at Suliao (GV 25) and Shuigou (GV 26) were observed as well as Glasgow coma scale (GCS) before the treatment, after 45 days and 90 days of treatment to assess the resuscitation time and rate. Also the clinical efficacy was compared between both groups. The occurrence rate of sneezing reflex was 85.7% (36/42) in the observation group, which was higher than 25.0% (10/40) in the control group (P 0.05). Compared before the treatment, GCS were both improved after the treatment in two groups (both P coma in severe craniocerebral injury is positive. It could specifically improve sneezing reflex and stimulate respiratory center, which has more obvious effect than acupuncture at Shuigou (GV 26).

Exercise decreases lipogenic gene expression in adipose tissue and alters adipocyte cellularity during weight regain after weight loss.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erin Danielle Giles

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Exercise is a potent strategy to facilitate long-term weight maintenance. In addition to increasing energy expenditure and reducing appetite, exercise also favors the oxidation of dietary fat, which likely helps prevent weight re-gain. It is unclear whether this exercise-induced metabolic shift is due to changes in energy balance, or whether exercise imparts additional adaptations in the periphery that limit the storage and favor the oxidation of dietary fat. To answer this question, adipose tissue lipid metabolism and related gene expression were studied in obese rats following weight loss and during the first day of relapse to obesity. Mature, obese rats were weight-reduced for 2 weeks with or without daily treadmill exercise (EX. Rats were weight maintained for 6 weeks, followed by relapse on: a ad libitum low fat diet (LFD, b ad libitum LFD plus EX, or c a provision of LFD to match the positive energy imbalance of exercised, relapsing animals. 24h retention of dietary- and de novo-derived fat were assessed directly using 14C palmitate/oleate and 3H20, respectively. Exercise decreased the size, but increased the number of adipocytes in both retroperitoneal (RP and subcutaneous (SC adipose depots, and prevented the relapse-induced increase in adipocyte size. Further, exercise decreased the expression of genes involved in lipid uptake (CD36 & LPL, de novo lipogenesis (FAS, ACC1, and triacylglycerol synthesis (MGAT & DGAT in RP adipose during relapse following weight loss. This was consistent with the metabolic data, whereby exercise reduced retention of de novo-derived fat even when controlling for the positive energy imbalance. The decreased trafficking of dietary fat to adipose tissue with exercise was explained by reduced energy intake which attenuated energy imbalance during refeeding. Despite having decreased expression of lipogenic genes, the net retention of de novo-derived lipid was higher in both the RP and SC adipose of exercising

Tissues Use Resident Dendritic Cells and Macrophages to Maintain Homeostasis and to Regain Homeostasis upon Tissue Injury: The Immunoregulatory Role of Changing Tissue Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Lech, Maciej; Gröbmayr, Regina; Weidenbusch, Marc; Anders, Hans-Joachim

2012-01-01

Most tissues harbor resident mononuclear phagocytes, that is, dendritic cells and macrophages. A classification that sufficiently covers their phenotypic heterogeneity and plasticity during homeostasis and disease does not yet exist because cell culture-based phenotypes often do not match those found in vivo. The plasticity of mononuclear phagocytes becomes obvious during dynamic or complex disease processes. Different data interpretation also originates from different conceptual perspectives. An immune-centric view assumes that a particular priming of phagocytes then causes a particular type of pathology in target tissues, conceptually similar to antigen-specific T-cell priming. A tissue-centric view assumes that changing tissue microenvironments shape the phenotypes of their resident and infiltrating mononuclear phagocytes to fulfill the tissue's need to maintain or regain homeostasis. Here we discuss the latter concept, for example, why different organs host different types of mononuclear phagocytes during homeostasis. We further discuss how injuries alter tissue environments and how this primes mononuclear phagocytes to enforce this particular environment, for example, to support host defense and pathogen clearance, to support the resolution of inflammation, to support epithelial and mesenchymal healing, and to support the resolution of fibrosis to the smallest possible scar. Thus, organ- and disease phase-specific microenvironments determine macrophage and dendritic cell heterogeneity in a temporal and spatial manner, which assures their support to maintain and regain homeostasis in whatever condition. Mononuclear phagocytes contributions to tissue pathologies relate to their central roles in orchestrating all stages of host defense and wound healing, which often become maladaptive processes, especially in sterile and/or diffuse tissue injuries. PMID:23251037

Regaining legitimacy in the context of global governance? UNESCO, Education for All coordination and the Global Monitoring Report

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, D. Brent; Okitsu, Taeko; da Costa, Romina; Kitamura, Yuto

2017-06-01

This research note shares insights which resulted from a larger study into the ways in which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) - during 2010-2014 - used its position as coordinator of the post-Dakar Framework for Action (initiated at the World Education Forum held in 2000 and designed to reinvigorate the Education for All initiative) to help it regain some of the legitimacy it had lost in the preceding decades. The research study focused on the role of both the UNESCO Education for All Follow-up Unit and the production of the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) during the 2000s because they were at the heart of UNESCO's efforts to repair its image and renew its impact in one area of global governance, specifically in the global education policy field. The study's findings were based on an analysis of documents, archives and interviews ( n = 17) with key actors inside and outside UNESCO, including representatives of UNESCO's peer institutions.

'You don't show everyone your weakness': Older adults' views on using Family Group Conferencing to regain control and autonomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Metze, Rosalie N; Kwekkeboom, Rick H; Abma, Tineke A

2015-08-01

Family Group Conferencing (FGC), a model in which a person and his or her social network make their own 'care' plan, is used in youth care and might also be useful in elderly care to support older persons living at home. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, FGC was implemented for older adults but they showed resistance. Reasons for this resistance have been researched and are described in this article. We examine existing views and attitudes of older adults concerning the use of FGC, and report on how older adults see the possibility to regain control over their lives using FGC. To do this, focus group sessions, duo interviews and individual interviews were held with older adults with varying characteristics: living at home, in sheltered housing, or in a home for the elderly; and living in urban, suburban or rural areas. Themes were: views on and contentment with the control and autonomy that they experience in their lives, and the willingness to use FGC to improve this. The main reasons for our respondents to resist FGC were: expecting people to be there for them without a FGC, not feeling ready yet for a FGC, feeling embarrassed when asking for help, being reluctant to open up about their problems, and having the fear of losing control when organizing a FGC. We conclude that, for this generation of older adults, FGC means losing control and autonomy rather than gaining it. To be appealing to older adults, a relational empowerment strengthening model should most likely be focused on reciprocity, peer-to-peer support, and solutions instead of problems. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mini-trampoline exercise related to mechanisms of dynamic stability improves the ability to regain balance in elderly.

Science.gov (United States)

Aragão, Fernando Amâncio; Karamanidis, Kiros; Vaz, Marco Aurélio; Arampatzis, Adamantios

2011-06-01

Falls have been described by several studies as the major cause of hip and femur fractures among the elderly. Therefore, interventions to reduce fall risks, improve dynamic stability and the falling recovery strategies in the elderly population are highly relevant. This study aimed at investigating the effects of a 14-week mini-trampoline exercise intervention regarding the mechanisms of dynamic stability on elderly balance ability during sudden forward falls. Twenty-two elderly subjects participated on mini-trampoline training and 12 subjects were taken as controls. The subjects of the experimental group were evaluated before and after the 14-week trampoline training (exercised group), whereas control subjects were evaluated twice in the forward fall task with a three-month interval. The applied exercise intervention increased the plantarflexors muscle strength (∼10%) as well as the ability to regain balance during the forward falls (∼35%). The 14-week mini-trampoline training intervention increased elderly abilities to recover balance during forward falls; the improvement was attributed to the higher rate of hip moment generation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Plastic surgery improves long-term weight control after bariatric surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Balagué, Nicolas; Combescure, Christophe; Huber, Olivier; Pittet-Cuénod, Brigitte; Modarressi, Ali

2013-10-01

The positive impact of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass on weight, comorbidities, and health-related quality of life is well documented. However, 50 percent of patients regain some of the lost weight after 2 years with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and present a mean weight regain of 10 to 15 percent after several years, partially losing the previously obtained benefits. The authors hypothesize that body contouring could decrease weight regain, leading to better long-term weight control after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. In a matched control study, variations in weight for 98 patients with body contouring after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass were compared with those of 102 matched control patients with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass alone. Data were collected prospectively at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18 months after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and then yearly until 7 years. After a massive mean weight loss of 45.2 kg during the first 2 years after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, patients with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass alone presented a higher continuous mean weight regain than those with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and body contouring (1.78 kg/year versus 0.51 kg/year of weight regain, respectively; p = 0.001). After 7 years, patients with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass presented significantly higher mean weight regain than patients with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and body contouring (i.e., 10.8 percent versus 3.6 percent mean weight gain, respectively; p weight of 2.04 kg by body contouring, the weight regain was 22.9 kg for patients with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass alone and only 6.2 kg for those with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and body contouring. The authors demonstrated that patients with body contouring present better long-term weight control after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Therefore, body contouring must be considered as a reconstructive operation in the treatment of morbid obesity. Therapeutic, III.

The meaning of living with malodorous exuding ulcers.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindahl, Elisabeth; Norberg, Astrid; Söderberg, Anna

2007-03-01

This study illuminates the meaning of living with malodorous, exuding ulcers. Difficulties for patients with chronic ulcers and the ulcers' impact on patients' daily life are described in the literature. Suffering and consolation are also addressed in the literature as important issues in nursing care. The first author interviewed seven women and two men, aged 41-95, with various diagnoses. We interpreted the transcribed interviews using a phenomenological hermeneutic method. Two processes were identified: 'being struck down'- themes: feeling dirty, being trapped, losing confidence, losing hope, becoming frustrated and protecting oneself; and 'finding consolation'- themes: experiencing kinship, encountering genuineness and gaining control. The meaning of living with malodorous and exuding ulcers can be understood as being trapped in a debilitating process that slowly strikes one down. There is a longing for purity and wholeness and for one's life to improve. When people with malodorous, exuding ulcers encounter genuineness and feel loved, regarded and respected as fully human despite their ulcers, they feel purified. The contaminated body no longer contaminates their self-image and self-esteem and they feel restored and fully human again. Only when they feel fully human can they regain control and see life beyond their ulcers. Although nurses cannot make ulcers or smell disappear, they can contribute significantly to improve the patients' life. Finding consolation makes patients feel purified despite their contaminated body. This study points to the importance of seeing the human being beyond the ulcer and considering not only the body but the whole person.

Modifying Eating Behavior: Novel Approaches for Reducing Body Weight, Preventing Weight Regain, and Reducing Chronic Disease Risk123

Science.gov (United States)

Gletsu-Miller, Nana; McCrory, Megan A

2014-01-01

This article is a summary of the symposium “Modifying Eating Behavior: Novel Approaches for Reducing Body Weight, Preventing Weight Regain, and Reducing Chronic Disease Risk” held 29 April 2014 at the ASN Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2014 in San Diego, CA. In this symposium, novel approaches to modifying eating behavior were highlighted, including 1) alteration of meal timing and macronutrient composition and 2) retraining and provision of feedback about eating behavior. Dr. Ciampolini discussed a method for teaching individuals to recognize a decrease in blood glucose concentration, and therefore the need for energy, by learning the associated physical sensations (signifying hunger). Dr. Madar and Sigal Sofer presented their work on reducing hunger during energy reduction by feeding carbohydrate only in the evening. Dr. Hamilton-Shield reviewed studies on the Mandometer (Mikrodidakt), a device for training individuals to slow eating rate. Finally, Dr. Sazonov presented information on a wearable device, the Automatic Ingestion Monitor, which senses jaw motion and/or hand-to-mouth gestures to detect and characterize food intake. His goal is to use the instrument to prevent overeating by providing feedback to the user to stop ingestion at a predetermined limit. PMID:25398742

One-shot genitalia are not an evolutionary dead end - Regained male polygamy in a sperm limited spider species

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michalik Peter

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Monogynous mating systems with extremely low male mating rates have several independent evolutionary origins and are associated with drastic adaptations involving self-sacrifice, one-shot genitalia, genital damage, and termination of spermatogenesis immediately after maturation. The combination of such extreme traits likely restricts evolutionary potential perhaps up to the point of making low male mating rates irreversible and hence may constitute an evolutionary dead end. Here, we explore the case of a reversion to multiple mating from monogynous ancestry in golden orb-web spiders, Nephila senegalensis. Results Male multiple mating is regained by the loss of genital damage and sexual cannibalism but spermatogenesis is terminated with maturation, restricting males to a single loading of their secondary mating organs and a fixed supply of sperm. However, males re-use their mating organs and by experimentally mating males to many females, we show that the sperm supply is divided between copulations without reloading the pedipalps. Conclusion By portioning their precious sperm supply, males achieve an average mating rate of four females which effectively doubles the maximal mating rate of their ancestors. A heritage of one-shot genitalia does not completely restrict the potential to increase mating rates in Nephila although an upper limit is defined by the available sperm load. Future studies should now investigate how males use this potential in the field and identify selection pressures responsible for a reversal from monogynous to polygynous mating strategies.

What does confidence mean to people who have had a stroke? A qualitative interview study.

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Horne, Jane; Lincoln, Nadina Berrice; Preston, Jenny; Logan, Pip

2014-11-01

To explore the meaning of confidence to stroke patients after stroke in order to inform the development of a measurement tool. Qualitative interview study using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Ten stroke survivors were purposively selected from those participating in a multi-centre randomised trial of outdoor mobility rehabilitation. Interviews about confidence were conducted in participants' homes, audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Six themes emerged from the analysis. These were loss of identity, fear, social confidence, role confidence, mastering skill and attitudes and beliefs. Loss of identity was particularly evident in the early stages of stroke recovery. Fear was a barrier to regaining confidence and was associated with avoidance behaviours. Lack of social confidence was a common problem which appeared difficult to resolve. Life roles motivated participants to re-engage in daily life activities. Personal attitudes and beliefs, combined with the attitudes of significant others, contributed to personal feelings of competence. This study provides a coherent definition of the meaning of confidence through the experiences of stroke survivors. Being successful in gradually re-engaging in activities, including social activities and life roles helped to establish a positive self-belief. The influence of others, such as family and friends reinforce self-beliefs. Confidence and self-efficacy appear to be a similar construct. However, participants in this study also identified a relationship between confidence and self-esteem. The findings indicate that all six themes need to be included in a confidence measure to encompass the meaning of confidence as described by participants with stroke. © The Author(s) 2014.

A Question of Trust : the Pursuit of Consumer Trust in the Financial Sector by Means of EU Legislation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jager, C.E.

2017-01-01

The decrease in consumer trust in the financial sector and the attempts to restore it are receiving a great deal of interest, especially since the financial crisis at the end of 2008. EU legislation is one of the ways that attempts have been made to regain the trust of investors. In Section 2, the

Storage Stability Improvement of Copolymer Grafted Polypropylene-AcrylicAcid (PP-AA), by means of Various After Treatment Processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gitopadmojo, Isminingsih

2000-01-01

Polypropylene yams that have been subjected to irradiation induced graftco-polymerization with acrylic acid, have gained its moisture regain and dyeability, that fulfilled the requirement as textile material for garment.However, the copolymer grafted PP-AA has suffered from degradation in thestorage, which was indicated in the previous study that the strengthretention has dropped tremendously by photo-oxidation or photo-degradation.After treatments of PP-AA yams with chemical compound that was able toprevent further photo-oxidation, will be expected to improve the stability ofPP-AA in storage. In this research activity, the polypropylene (PP) yams weresubjected to irradiation induced graft co-polymerization by means ofγ-Ray Co-60 as irradiation source with acrylic acid (AA) as monomer.Various after treatments were subjected to the grafted PP-AA yams such asalkalisation process; dyeing (anionic dyes, cationic dyes and nonionic dyes);as well as processing with optical brightening agent and UV stabilizer,separately. The PP-AA yams (before and after treatment) were subjected tostorage from 1 month up to 42 months, and then being tested for theirmoisture regain, strength retention and elongation at breaks. The samplesbeing stored for 12 months were subjected to radical analysis. It isconcluded from the experiment that after treatment of grafted PP-AA by meansof those various processes were able to improve the stability of copolymergrafted PP-AA in storage. The presence of peroxide radical in the ESR(electron spin resonance) spectrum on PP-AA yams before treatment and theones after treated with alkaline and being stored for 12 months haveindicated the presence of photo oxidation or photo degradation, while thepresence of poly enyl radical in the ESR spectrum of after treated PP-AA withdyes having azo and azine compound as chromophore, as well as with UVstabilizer with carbonyl as chromophore and being stored for 12 months haveproved that its presence have protected such

Mechanism of isoproturon resistance in Phalaris minor: in silico design, synthesis and testing of some novel herbicides for regaining sensitivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Durg Vijay; Adeppa, Kuruba; Misra, Krishna

2012-04-01

Isoproturon, 3-p-cumenyl-1 dimethylurea was the only herbicide controlling Phalaris minor, a major weed growing in wheat fields till the early 1980s. Since it has acquired resistance against isoproturon, like other substituted urea herbicides, where the identified target site for isoproturon is in the photosynthetic apparatus at D1 protein of Photosystem-II (PS-II). Nucleotide sequence of susceptible and resistant psbA gene of P. minor has been reported to have four point mutations. During the present work D1 protein of both susceptible and resistant biotypes of P Minor has been modeled. Transmembrane segments of amino acids were predicted by comparing with the nearest homolog of bacterial D1 protein. Volume and area of active site of both susceptible and resistant biotypes has been simulated. Isoproturon was docked at the active site of both, susceptible and resistant D1 proteins. Modeling and simulation of resistance D1 protein indicates that the resistance is due to alteration in secondary structure near the binding site, resulting in loss in cavity area, volume and change in binding position, loss of hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interaction and complete loss of hydrophobic sites. To regain sensitivity in resistant biotype new derivatives of isoproturon molecules have been proposed, synthesized and tested. Among the 17 derivatives we found that the N-methyl triazole substituted isoproturon is a potential substitute for isoproturon.

Barriers to regaining control within a constructivist grounded theory of family resilience in ICU: Living with uncertainty.

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Wong, Pauline; Liamputtong, Pranee; Koch, Susan; Rawson, Helen

2017-12-01

To discuss families' experiences of their interactions when a relative is admitted unexpectedly to an Australian intensive care unit. The overwhelming emotions associated with the unexpected admission of a relative to an intensive care unit are often due to the uncertainty surrounding the condition of their critically ill relative. There is limited in-depth understanding of the nature of uncertainty experienced by families in intensive care, and interventions perceived by families to minimise their uncertainty are not well documented. Furthermore, the interrelationships between factors, such as staff-family interactions and the intensive care unit environment, and its influence on families' uncertainty particularly in the context of the Australian healthcare system, are not well delineated. A grounded theory methodology was adopted for the study. Data were collected between 2009-2013, using in-depth interviews with 25 family members of 21 critically ill patients admitted to a metropolitan, tertiary-level intensive care unit in Australia. This paper describes the families experiences of heightened emotional vulnerability and uncertainty when a relative is admitted unexpectedly to the intensive care unit. Families uncertainty is directly influenced by their emotional state, the foreign environment and perceptions of being 'kept in the dark', as well as the interrelationships between these factors. Staff are offered an improved understanding of the barriers to families' ability to regain control, guided by a grounded theory of family resilience in the intensive care unit. The findings reveal in-depth understanding of families' uncertainty in intensive care. It suggests that intensive care unit staff need to focus clinical interventions on reducing factors that heighten their uncertainty, while optimising strategies that help alleviate it. Families are facilitated to move beyond feelings of helplessness and loss of control, and cope better with their situation. �

Implication of Human Hair in Regaining Spilled Oil Further Creating A Production Rise in Oyster Mushrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Pandey, A.; Srivastava, P.; Singh, U.

2016-12-01

It is estimated that 4.9 million liters of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. Oil spill may be as huge as of 8 million barrels (The Persian Gulf oil spill of 1991). Oil-water separation processes using polymeric or inorganic membranes have been proposed as effective and cost competitive technologies but in present the commercial use of membrane in treatment of spilled oil is currently limited by their low efficiency as well as high capital and operating cost. Indian hair-market is a billion-dollar industry yearly exporting thousands of tones of thick and dark hairs. Hairs contain keratin, a family of fibrous structural proteins been proved to adsorb oils. Laboratory results conclude that one gram of human hair can selectively adsorb about 15.5301 grams of crude oil over water, following Frendlich's isotherm. We seek hair mats made up of hairs of size ≤5 inches, costing 37/ton from selected parts of Indian hair market. With a known adsorbing efficiency of 95% towards crude oil, an estimated desorption efficiency of 70% oil worth 0.8M per year can be regained in crude form from U.S. waters only. To ensure solid waste management of hairs, hair mats left with 30% of adsorbed oil can be utilized in the cultivation of oyster mushrooms, a 20-34/kg crop that grows best in 20-25°C ,80-90% relative humidity and oily conditions. This will reduce the growing period of crop ensuring yearly profit of $6.06M in U.S. only engaging variety of stakeholders over borders. Results thus obtained in this study present an economic, safer and sustainable technique to minimize oil loss due to oil spill in waters further ensuring a low labor-low cost technique of waste management that enhances the growth of an in-demand crop. Keywords: Oil Spill, Human Hair Mats, Adsorb, Oyster Mushrooms

Regaining a sense of agency and shared self-reliance: the experience of advanced disease cancer patients participating in a multidimensional exercise intervention while undergoing chemotherapy--analysis of patient diaries.

Science.gov (United States)

Midtgaard, Julie; Stelter, Reinhard; Rørth, Mikael; Adamsen, Lis

2007-04-01

Evidence is emerging that exercise can reduce psychological distress in cancer patients undergoing treatment. The present study aimed to (qualitatively) explore the experiences of advanced disease cancer patients participating in a 6-week, 9-hours weekly, structured, group-based multidimensional exercise intervention while undergoing chemotherapy. Unstructured diaries from a purposive sample of three females and two males (28-52 years old) who participated in the program served as the database. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological, narrative method. The analysis yielded three themes: shifting position, self-surveillance, and negotiated strength. The intervention highlighted situations making it possible for the participants to negate psychological and physical constraints. The concept of structured exercise contains viable psychotherapeutic potentials by allowing the development of alternative bodily and mental realities complying with cancer patients' demands and abilities to regain autonomy and commitment to discover and adopt a sense of agency and shared self-reliance.

Regaining Strategic Competence

Science.gov (United States)

2009-01-01

and Vietnam. He is the author of the recent book, 7 Deadly Scenarios. A graduate of West Point, he retired from the US Army in 1993. Dr . Krepinevich...Defense in the Nuclear Age (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 23. 2 Robert M. Gates, “A Balanced Strategy: Reprogramming the...February 1946 “long telegram” from the US embassy in Moscow, Ken - nan likened world communism to a “malignant parasite which feeds only on diseased

Pretreatment fasting plasma glucose and insulin modify dietary weight loss success

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjorth, Mads Fiil; Ritz, Christian; Blaak, Ellen

2017-01-01

in the NUGENOB (Nutrient-Gene Interactions in Human Obesity) trial consumed a hypocaloric low-fat and high-carbohydrate or a high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet for 10 wk. On the basis of FPG before treatment, participants were categorized as normoglycemic (FPG prediabetic (FPG 5.6-6.9 mmol....../L), or diabetic (FPG ≥7.0 mmol/L). Modifications of the dietary effects of FPG and FI before treatment were examined with linear mixed models.Results: In the DiOGenes trial, prediabetic individuals regained a mean of 5.83 kg (95% CI: 3.34, 8.32 kg; P ..., whereas normoglycemic individuals regained a mean of 1.44 kg (95% CI: 0.48, 2.41 kg; P = 0.003) more [mean group difference: 4.39 kg (95% CI: 1.76, 7.02 kg); P = 0.001]. In SHOPUS, prediabetic individuals lost a mean of 6.04 kg (95% CI: 4.05, 8.02 kg; P

The flavonoid-rich fraction of Coreopsis tinctoria promotes glucose tolerance regain through pancreatic function recovery in streptozotocin-induced glucose-intolerant rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Dias, Teresa; Bronze, Maria Rosário; Houghton, Peter J; Mota-Filipe, Hélder; Paulo, Alexandra

2010-11-11

(8.35 ± 0.69 U/L) demonstrating recovery of pancreatic function. On the other hand, treatment with standard antioxidant Trolox had no effect on glucose homeostasis of glucose-intolerant rats. The oral treatment with Coreopsis tinctoria fraction caused no hepatotoxicity, as determined by blood alanine and aspartate transaminases, and had also no effect on glucose homeostasis and pancreatic function of normal rats. AcOEt fraction, containing the same amount of marein as the infusion, promoted glucose tolerance regain in the rats more quickly, which means that the bioactivity is probably due to the several flavonoids present in Coreopsis tinctoria extracts and not to marein alone. The results also strongly suggest that these compounds act by promoting pancreatic cell function recovery from STZ-induced injury, possibly through a mechanism of action other than merely antioxidant mediated. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Meaning of Meaning, Etc.

Science.gov (United States)

Nilsen, Don L. F.

This paper attempts to dispel a number of misconceptions about the nature of meaning, namely that: (1) synonyms are words that have the same meanings, (2) antonyms are words that have opposite meanings, (3) homonyms are words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings, (4) converses are antonyms rather than synonyms, (5)…

The Educational Policy Consequences of Economic Instability: The Emerging Political Economy of American Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Guthrie, James W.

1985-01-01

Persistant economic uncertainty fueled by continuing conditions such as high federal deficits, nagging unemployment, foreign trade imbalances, and growing overseas borrowings has evoked intensified public faith in education as a means for regaining U.S. economic vitality. (Author/LMO)

Time and Motion Regained.

Science.gov (United States)

Adler, Paul S.

1993-01-01

A General Motors-Toyota auto assembly plant demonstrates how hierarchy and standardization can improve productivity and motivate workers. The production system is strongly committed to the social context of work and focused on standards designed by workers themselves, giving continuous improvement a specific foundation. (SK)

Proportionality lost - proportionality regained?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Werlauff, Erik

2010-01-01

In recent years, the European Court of Justice (the ECJ) seems to have accepted restrictions on the freedom of establishment and other basic freedoms, despite the fact that a more thorough proportionality test would have revealed that the restriction in question did not pass the 'rule of reason' ...

A second chance at life: people's lived experiences of surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Science.gov (United States)

Forslund, Ann-Sofie; Jansson, Jan-Håkan; Lundblad, Dan; Söderberg, Siv

2017-12-01

There is more to illuminate about people's experiences of surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and how such an event affects people's lives over time. This study aimed to elucidate meanings of people's lived experiences and changes in everyday life during their first year after surviving OHCA. A qualitative, longitudinal design was used. Eleven people surviving OHCA from northern Sweden agreed to participate and were interviewed 6 and 12 months after the event. A phenomenological hermeneutic interpretation was used to analyse the transcribed texts. The structural analysis resulted in two themes: (i) striving to regain one's usual self and (ii) a second chance at life, and subthemes (ia) testing the body, (ib) pursuing the ordinary life, (ic) gratitude for help to survival, (iia) regaining a sense of security with one's body, (iib) getting to know a new self, and (iic) seeking meaning and establishing a future. To conclude, we suggest that people experienced meanings of surviving OHCA over time as striving to regain their usual self and getting a second chance at life. The event affected them in many ways and resulted in a lot of emotions and many things to think about. Participants experienced back-and-forth emotions, when comparing their present lives to both their lives before cardiac arrest and those lives they planned for the future. During their first year, participants' daily lives were still influenced by 'being dead' and returning to life. As time passed, they wanted to resume their ordinary lives and hoped for continued lives filled with meaning and joyous activities. © 2017 Nordic College of Caring Science.

Maintenance of Process Control Algorithms based on Dynamic Program Slicing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Ole Fink; Andersen, Nils Axel; Ravn, Ole

2010-01-01

Today’s industrial control systems gradually lose performance after installation and must be regularly maintained by means of adjusting parameters and modifying the control algorithm, in order to regain high performance. Industrial control algorithms are complex software systems, and it is partic...

Scoring mode and age-related effects on youth soccer teams' defensive performance during small-sided games.

Science.gov (United States)

Almeida, Carlos Humberto; Duarte, Ricardo; Volossovitch, Anna; Ferreira, António Paulo

2016-07-01

This study aimed to examine the scoring mode (line goal, double goal or central goal) and age-related effects on the defensive performance of youth soccer players during 4v4 small-sided games (SSGs). Altogether, 16 male players from 2 age groups (U13, n = 8, mean age: 12.61 ± 0.65 years; U15, n = 8, 14.86 ± 0.47 years) were selected as participants. In six independent sessions, participants performed the three SSGs each during 10-min periods. Teams' defensive performance was analysed at every instant ball possession was regained through the variables: ball-recovery type, ball-recovery sector, configuration of play and defence state. Multinomial logistic regression analysis used in this study revealed the following significant main effects of scoring mode and age: (1) line goal (vs. central goal) increased the odds of regaining possession through tackle and in the defensive midfield sector, and decreased the odds of successful interceptions; (2) double goal (vs. central goal) decreased the odds of regaining possession through turnover won and with elongated playing shapes; (3) the probability of regaining possession through interception significantly decreased with age. Moreover, as youth players move forward in age groups, teams tend to structurally evolve from elongated playing shapes to flattened shapes and, at a behavioural level, from defending in depth to more risky flattened configurations. Overall, by manipulating the scoring mode in SSGs, coaches can promote functional and coadaptive behaviours between teams not only in terms of configurations of play, but also on the pitch locations that teams explore to regain possession.

Ashoka : el gran soberano del Imperio Maurya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Teresa Román López

2000-01-01

Full Text Available Ashoka (268-239 a.C. fue el tercer monarca de la dinastía Maurya. Sus edictos y las inscripciones grabadas en rocas o pilares ubicados en varias partes de su reino nos familiarizan no solamente con la personalidad de uno de los gobernantes más importantes de la historia de la India, sino también con los acontecimientos de su reinado. Acaso el más conocido de ellos sea su conversión al budismo. Promovió la labor misionera budista, que rebasó las fronteras extendiéndose por otros países, sobre todo por el sudeste asiático.Ashoka (268-239 a. C. was the third King of the Maurya dinasty. His edicts and the inscriptions engraved on the rocks or pilars placed in several parts of his reign show as not only the personality of one of the most important goberning in the Indian History, but also the events of his Kingdom. Perhaps the most known of them is his conversión to Budism: The prometed the budish missionary labor that crossed the frontiers to another countryes, overcoat througt the Asían south east.

MEAN OF MEDIAN ABSOLUTE DERIVATION TECHNIQUE MEAN ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

eobe

development of mean of median absolute derivation technique based on the based on the based on .... of noise mean to estimate the speckle noise variance. Noise mean property ..... Foraging Optimization,” International Journal of. Advanced ...

[Darwinism and the meaning of "meaning"].

Science.gov (United States)

Castrodeza, Carlos

2009-01-01

The problem of the meaning of life is herewith contemplated from a Darwinian perspective. It is argued how factors such as existential depression, the concern about the meaning of "meaning," the problem of evil, death as the end of our personal identity, happiness as an unachievable goal, etc. may well have an adaptive dimension "controlled" neither by ourselves nor obscure third parties (conspiracy theories) but "simply" by our genes (replicators in general) so that little if anything is to be done to find a radical remedy for the human condition.

Between Politics and Religion – In Search of the Golden Mean

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pawel Tarasiewicz

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The author undertakes the problem of the identity of Western civilization in the light of a correlation between politics and religion. First, he traces the theoretical debates about the mutual correspondence of politics and religion in ancient Greece. Following two extreme errors depicted by Sophocles in his “Antigone,” and by Plato in his “Apology of Socrates,” he infers that the “Golden Mean” is necessary in resolving the problem of politics and religion. Then, he examines the underlying errors put forward in the history. His investigations show the erroneousness of endowing either politics or religion with sovereign status in culture. There is always a conflict between politics and religion unless man regains his own sovereignty from them. Ultimately the author arrives at the conclusion that the “Golden Mean” correlating politics and religion distinctly strengthens the identity of the Western Civilization, and consists in respecting all real and universal parameters of human person life, such as cognition, freedom (and responsibility, love, agency in law, ontological sovereignty, and religious dignity.

Return to sports after autogenous osteochondral mosaicplasty of the femoral condyles: 25 cases at a mean follow-up of 9 years.

Science.gov (United States)

Cognault, J; Seurat, O; Chaussard, C; Ionescu, S; Saragaglia, D

2015-05-01

Autogenous osteochondral mosaicplasty is the most common cartilage restoration technique in standard clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the return to sports 9 years after mosaicplasty of the femoral condyles. The long-term results of an osteochondral autograft show that patients can regain their pre-injury activity level. This study is based on a series of 25 patients with a mean age of 28.9 years (range, 16-44 years) who had stage 3 or 4 chondral lesions of the femoral condyles (according to the ICRS or ICRS-OCD scores). The origin of the lesion was osteochondritis dissecans (13 knees), osteochondral fracture sequelae (ten knees), or aseptic osteonecrosis (two knees). The average size of the lesion was 2.11 ± 0.9 cm(2). Ten patients (40%) had an associated procedure during the osteochondral autograft. The patients were assessed clinically (IKDC and Lysholm-Tegner scores) and radiographically by a reviewer independent of the team of operators. All patients were re-examined at a mean follow-up of 9 years (range, 6-15 years), with 84% satisfied or very satisfied with the procedure. The average IKDC was 74.5 ± 18.5 points. The average Lysholm score was 87.3 ± 11.6 points. The average Tegner score ranged from 6.35 ± 1.53 points prior to surgery to 5.60 ± 1.64 points after surgery (P = 0.001). The average loss was 0.64 points for patients whose presurgery Tegner score was greater than or equal to 7 (P = 0.019) and 0.3 points if lower than 7. The radiologic evaluation of 21 patients showed complete osteointegration of the grafts in 90% of cases. The results of the femoral condyle mosaic autografts are satisfactory, a mean of 9 years after surgery. The most active patients lowered their activity level while the more sedentary did not have to adapt their lifestyle. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Priming With 1-Hz Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Over Contralesional Leg Motor Cortex Does Not Increase the Rate of Regaining Ambulation Within 3 Months of Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Ying-Zu; Lin, Li-Fong; Chang, Kwang-Hwa; Hu, Chaur-Jong; Liou, Tsan-Hon; Lin, Yen-Nung

2018-05-01

The potential benefits of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), applied either alone or as a combination treatment, on recovery of lower limbs after stroke have been insufficiently studied. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of priming with 1-Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over contralesional leg motor area with a double-cone coil before physical therapy on regaining ambulation. Thirty-eight subacute stroke patients with significant leg disabilities were randomly assigned into the experimental group or control group to receive a 15-min real or sham 1-Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, respectively, over the contralesional motor cortex representing the quadriceps muscle followed by 45-min physical therapy for 15 sessions for 3 wks. Functional measures, motor evoked potentials, and quality of life were assessed. There was no significant difference between experimental group and control group regarding the recovery in ambulation, balance, motor functions, and activity of daily living. No significant difference was found in other functional measures and the quality of life. Only the control group displayed significantly increased cortical excitability of the contralesional hemisphere after the intervention. The present study found that insufficient evidence that contralesional priming with 1-Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation improves ambulatory and other motor functions among patients with a severe leg dysfunction in subacute stroke.

Beyond the Cold-War Reprise of the Arctic Super-Powers. Decoding the Structural Meaning of the Ukrainian Crisis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John McMurtry

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The “Ukraine crisis” repeats a script as old as the Cold War, of which the Arctic was one of its main theatres and that, as suggested by Irina Zhilina in her 2013 study about NATO in the far north for issue 8(1 of Nordicum-Mediterraneum, could regain such a role, were frictions between East and West to resurface. And they have resurfaced. The ongoing Cold-War-like narrative vis-à-vis Ukraine features rising attacks by corporate states and media on the traditional whipping boy of Russia. As usual, “escalating the crisis” is the other Arctic super-power: the US. As usual, alarm about “increasing lawless aggression” is projection of US policy itself.

CONSUMERS INSIGHT : MENJAGA KONSISTENSI KOMUNIKASI BRAND (EVALUASI AKTIVITAS KOMUNIKASI PEMASARAN WAROENG SEMAWIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dyah Pitaloka, Djoko Setyabudi, Sri Widowati H

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Integrated Marketing Communications should always be considered as an integration communication process to target specific audience in a certain unique way. Therefore it was no longer about how to choose the tools and integrated it all through series of action but to craft the messages, tone, and manner which will be suited the target audiences expectation, need, want, dream, lifestyle. In short, all aspects of life as a human being. Consumers insight, compared to other segmentation criteria (geographic and demographic segmentation provides more than just numbers and fact, but also in-deptth knowledge about the target audiences and their characteristic as a man. In-depth interviews, focus group discussion and brain storming are some methods that could be used to dig deeper into consumer’s life and portrayed them in detail. Consumers insight built from an understanding of facts or information, which can be seen from the statistic and demographic data, and intuition, which is gained througt in-depth discussion with the target audiences. All data collected from the consumers, which then will called insight, will be use to build a strategic communication patch that could specifically ‘talk’ to the audience and creat a long lasting emotional relationship between brand and the audience.

In Situ Fusion For Spondylolysis” Is Regaining Its Llost Popularity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamadsaleh Ganjavian

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Background:Spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis can be associated with significant low back pain Respecially in physically active adolescents. Non-operative management is usually successful in improving symptoms, but surgical intervention is  occasionally required. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of in situ posterolateral fusion in the treatment of refractory cases with spondylolysis.Methods:In this prospective before and after study, we described our experience  in13 patients managed by in situ fusion after failing multimodality non-operative  treatment. All surgical procedures were performed by the senior author and by a similar technique.The spondylolytic vertebra and the one below were fused, in situ. Finally, clinical outcome and recovery rates of clinical symptoms were evaluated by  Henderson’s functional capacity and Oswestry Disability Index version 2.1, respectively.  Results: The mean duration of non-operative management was 36 (12-72  months. There were 8 males and 5 females. Average pre- and postoperative Oswestry  Disability Indices were 28.4%±13.7% and 4.9±7.8 respectively (P=0.001, significant. All patients had follow-up contact on an average of 42.3 months (range 30 - 62  months. Based on Henderson’s clinical outcome functional capacity at the final follow- up stage clinical outcomes were excellent in 10, good in 2 and poor in 1 patient.The case with poor result had a pseudoarthrosis and was re-oprated. Finally he had an  excellent outcome.Conclusion: We accept that the number of our cases is not high significantly but it can be claimed that in situ fusion is a safe and effective modality to treat symptomatic  patients with spondylolysis and low-grade spondylolisthesis. A study with much  more cases is strongly recommended.

Parallel k-means++

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2017-04-04

A parallelization of the k-means++ seed selection algorithm on three distinct hardware platforms: GPU, multicore CPU, and multithreaded architecture. K-means++ was developed by David Arthur and Sergei Vassilvitskii in 2007 as an extension of the k-means data clustering technique. These algorithms allow people to cluster multidimensional data, by attempting to minimize the mean distance of data points within a cluster. K-means++ improved upon traditional k-means by using a more intelligent approach to selecting the initial seeds for the clustering process. While k-means++ has become a popular alternative to traditional k-means clustering, little work has been done to parallelize this technique. We have developed original C++ code for parallelizing the algorithm on three unique hardware architectures: GPU using NVidia's CUDA/Thrust framework, multicore CPU using OpenMP, and the Cray XMT multithreaded architecture. By parallelizing the process for these platforms, we are able to perform k-means++ clustering much more quickly than it could be done before.

Internalized Meaning Factualism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hohwy, Jakob

2006-01-01

The normative character of meaning creates deep problems for the attempt to give a reductive explanation of the constitution of meaning. I identify and critically examine an increasingly popular Carnap-style position, which I call Internalized Meaning Factualism (versions of which I argue...... are defended by, e.g., Robert Brandom, Paul Horwich and Huw Price), that promises to solve the problems. According to this position, the problem of meaning can be solved by prohibiting an external perspective on meaning constituting properties. The idea is that if we stick to a perspective on meaning...

The origins and restriction of efficiency in public administration: regaining efficiency as the core value of public administration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rutgers, M.R.; van der Meer, H.

2010-01-01

This article is primarily a study in the history of the concept of efficiency. It is argued that efficiency originated in Aristotelian ideas about causality and acquired a broad, substantive meaning of "moving force." This meaning of the term was dominant well into 20th-century studies of public

Analisis Perbandingan Algoritma Fuzzy C-Means dan K-Means

OpenAIRE

Yohannes, Yohannes

2016-01-01

Klasterisasi merupakan teknik pengelompokkan data berdasarkan kemiripan data. Teknik klasterisasi ini banyak digunakan pada bidang ilmu komputer khususnya pengolahan citra, pengenalan pola, dan data mining. Banyak sekali algoritma yang digunakan untuk klasterisasi data. Algoritma yang sering digunakan untuk klasterisasi data pada umumnya adalah Fuzzy C-Means dan K-Means. Algoritma Fuzzy C-Means merupakan algoritma klasterisasi dimana data dikelompokkan ke dalam suatu pusat cluster data denga...

Meaning through Things

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Marilynn

2017-01-01

Interpretation is the process by which we find meaning in the things in the world around us: clouds on the horizon, bones, street signs, hairbrushes, uniforms, paintings, letters, and utterances. But where does that meaning come from and on what basis are we justified in saying a particular meaning is the right meaning? Drawing from debates in the…

Overestimation of Knowledge about Word Meanings: The "Misplaced Meaning" Effect

Science.gov (United States)

Kominsky, Jonathan F.; Keil, Frank C.

2014-01-01

Children and adults may not realize how much they depend on external sources in understanding word meanings. Four experiments investigated the existence and developmental course of a "Misplaced Meaning" (MM) effect, wherein children and adults overestimate their knowledge about the meanings of various words by underestimating how much…

Matrix inequalities for the difference between arithmetic mean and harmonic mean

OpenAIRE

Liao, Wenshi; Wu, Junliang

2015-01-01

Motivated by the refinements and reverses of arithmetic-geometric mean and arithmetic-harmonic mean inequalities for scalars and matrices, in this article, we generalize the scalar and matrix inequalities for the difference between arithmetic mean and harmonic mean. In addition, relevant inequalities for the Hilbert-Schmidt norm and determinant are established.

A Qualitative Systematic Review of Older Persons’ Perceptions of Health, Ill Health, and Their Community Health Care Needs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Lise Holm

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this qualitative systematic review was to report a synthesis of older persons’ perceptions of health, ill health, and their community health care needs. The review questions were what characterizes older persons’ perceptions of health and ill health? and what are their community health care needs? Ten studies were identified in a systematic search for relevant qualitative papers published between January 2000 and January 2013 in the following electronic databases: PubMed, EBSCOhost/Academic Search Premier, and CINAHL. Publications were evaluated for quality, and a thematic analysis was performed. Two main themes were interpreted on a higher level: reconciliation with how life has become: and desire to regain their identity and sense of self-worth despite disability. Two themes emerged: creating meaning led to the experience of being valued in health care and society and a mental struggle to regain independence with the help of caregivers. Of special interest is the finding of perceptions related to the fear of becoming dependent on caregivers as well as the sorrow and pain caused by encountering caregivers who did not understand their desire to create meaning in their lives or their struggle for autonomy and independency.

Brand Meaning Cocreation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tierney, Kieran D.; Karpen, Ingo; Westberg, Kate

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consolidate and advance the understanding of brand meaning and the evolving process by which it is determined by introducing and explicating the concept of brand meaning cocreation (BMCC). Design/methodology/approach: In-depth review and integration...... of literature from branding, cocreation, service systems, and practice theory. To support deep theorizing, the authors also examine the role of institutional logics in the BMCC process in framing interactions and brand meaning outcomes. Findings: Prior research is limited in that it neither maps the process...... of cocreation within which meanings emerge nor provides theoretical conceptualizations of brand meaning or the process of BMCC. While the literature acknowledges that brand meaning is influenced by multiple interactions, their nature and how they contribute to BMCC have been overlooked. Research limitations...

Comparisons and Characterizations of the Mean-Variance, Mean-VaR, Mean-CVaR Models for Portfolio Selection With Background Risk

OpenAIRE

Xu, Guo; Wing-Keung, Wong; Lixing, Zhu

2013-01-01

This paper investigates the impact of background risk on an investor’s portfolio choice in a mean-VaR, mean-CVaR and mean-variance framework, and analyzes the characterizations of the mean-variance boundary and mean-VaR efficient frontier in the presence of background risk. We also consider the case with a risk-free security.

Finding Meaning: HIV Self-Management and Wellbeing among People Taking Antiretroviral Therapy in Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Russell, Steve; Martin, Faith; Zalwango, Flavia; Namukwaya, Stella; Nalugya, Ruth; Muhumuza, Richard; Katongole, Joseph; Seeley, Janet

2016-01-01

The health of people living with HIV (PLWH) and the sustained success of antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes depends on PLWH's motivation and ability to self-manage the condition over the long term, including adherence to drugs on a daily basis. PLWH's self-management of HIV and their wellbeing are likely to be interrelated. Successful self-management sustains wellbeing, and wellbeing is likely to motivate continued self-management. Detailed research is lacking on PLWH's self-management processes on ART in resource-limited settings. This paper presents findings from a study of PLWH's self-management and wellbeing in Wakiso District, Uganda. Thirty-eight PLWH (20 women, 18 men) were purposefully selected at ART facilities run by the government and by The AIDS Support Organisation in and around Entebbe. Two in-depth interviews were completed with each participant over three or four visits. Many were struggling economically, however the recovery of health and hope on ART had enhanced wellbeing and motivated self-management. The majority were managing their condition well across three broad domains of self-management. First, they had mobilised resources, notably through good relationships with health workers. Advice and counselling had helped them to reconceptualise their condition and situation more positively and see hope for the future, motivating their work to self-manage. Many had also developed a new network of support through contacts they had developed at the ART clinic. Second, they had acquired knowledge and skills to manage their health, a useful framework to manage their condition and to live their life. Third, participants were psychologically adjusting to their condition and their new 'self': they saw HIV as a normal disease, were coping with stigma and had regained self-esteem, and were finding meaning in life. Our study demonstrates the centrality of social relationships and other non-medical aspects of wellbeing for self-management which ART

Finding Meaning: HIV Self-Management and Wellbeing among People Taking Antiretroviral Therapy in Uganda.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steve Russell

Full Text Available The health of people living with HIV (PLWH and the sustained success of antiretroviral therapy (ART programmes depends on PLWH's motivation and ability to self-manage the condition over the long term, including adherence to drugs on a daily basis. PLWH's self-management of HIV and their wellbeing are likely to be interrelated. Successful self-management sustains wellbeing, and wellbeing is likely to motivate continued self-management. Detailed research is lacking on PLWH's self-management processes on ART in resource-limited settings. This paper presents findings from a study of PLWH's self-management and wellbeing in Wakiso District, Uganda. Thirty-eight PLWH (20 women, 18 men were purposefully selected at ART facilities run by the government and by The AIDS Support Organisation in and around Entebbe. Two in-depth interviews were completed with each participant over three or four visits. Many were struggling economically, however the recovery of health and hope on ART had enhanced wellbeing and motivated self-management. The majority were managing their condition well across three broad domains of self-management. First, they had mobilised resources, notably through good relationships with health workers. Advice and counselling had helped them to reconceptualise their condition and situation more positively and see hope for the future, motivating their work to self-manage. Many had also developed a new network of support through contacts they had developed at the ART clinic. Second, they had acquired knowledge and skills to manage their health, a useful framework to manage their condition and to live their life. Third, participants were psychologically adjusting to their condition and their new 'self': they saw HIV as a normal disease, were coping with stigma and had regained self-esteem, and were finding meaning in life. Our study demonstrates the centrality of social relationships and other non-medical aspects of wellbeing for self

Whey Protein Supplementation Enhances Body Fat and Weight Loss in Women Long After Bariatric Surgery: a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes Gomes, Daniela; Moehlecke, Milene; Lopes da Silva, Fernanda Bassan; Dutra, Eliane Said; D'Agord Schaan, Beatriz; Baiocchi de Carvalho, Kenia Mara

2017-02-01

The ideal nutritional approach for weight regain after bariatric surgery remains unclear. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of whey protein supplementation on weight loss and body composition of women who regained weight 24 or more months after bariatric surgery. This is a 16-week open-label, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial of women who regained at least 5 % of their lowest postoperative weight after a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). A total of 34 participants were treated with hypocaloric diet and randomized (1:1) to receive or not supplementation with whey protein, 0.5 g/kg of the ideal body weight. The primary outcomes were changes in body weight, fat free mass (FFM), and fat mass (FM), evaluated by tetrapolar bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Secondary outcomes included resting energy expenditure, blood glucose, lipids, adiponectin, interleukin 6 (IL-6), and cholecystokinin levels. Statistical analyses included generalized estimating equations adjusted for age and physical activity. Fifteen patients in each group were evaluated: mean age was 45 ± 11 years, body mass index (BMI) was 35.7 ± 5.2 kg/m 2 , and time since surgery was 69 ± 23 months. Protein intake during follow-up increased by approximately 75 % in the intervention group (p = 0.01). The intervention group presented more body weight loss (1.86 kg, p = 0.017), accounted for FM loss (2.78, p = 0.021) and no change in FFM, as compared to controls (gain of 0.42 kg of body weight and 0.6 kg of FM). No differences in secondary outcomes were observed between groups. Whey protein supplementation promoted body weight and FM loss in women with long-term weight regain following RYGB.

A science of meaning. Can behaviorism bring meaning to psychological science?

Science.gov (United States)

DeGrandpre, R J

2000-07-01

An argument is presented for making meaning a central dependent variable in psychological science. Principles of operant psychology are then interpreted as providing a basic foundation for a science of meaning. The emphasis here is on the generality of basic operant concepts, where learning is a process of meaning making that is governed largely by natural contingencies; reinforcement is an organic process in which environment-behavior relations are selected, defined here as a dialectical process of meaning making; and reinforcers are experiential consequences with acquired, ecologically derived meanings. The author concludes with a call for a more interdisciplinary science of psychology, focusing on the individual in society.

Meaning identification and meaning selection for general language monolingual dictionaries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bergenholtz, Henning; Agerbo, Heidi

2014-01-01

The traditional way for lexicographers to deal with polysemy in dictionaries is by applying the terms lumping and splitting. We will not follow this tradition. Instead, we argue that the identification and selection of meaning items (= polysems) should be treated in the same way as the identifica......The traditional way for lexicographers to deal with polysemy in dictionaries is by applying the terms lumping and splitting. We will not follow this tradition. Instead, we argue that the identification and selection of meaning items (= polysems) should be treated in the same way...... to references in the world (in this contribution called things), followed by a formulation of the identified meaning items which can be used for reception situations. Not always – as in the case of lemma selection – will all the identified meaning items be included in the dictionary. The selection of identified...... meaning items will depend on the genuine purpose of the dictionary....

The State regains control of Areva

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dupin, Ludovic

2014-01-01

This article first gives an overview of problems faced by Areva during the past years: financial losses, new delay for the Finnish EPR and for the French one in Flamanville, delay for the construction of the Jules Horowitz reactor, bad investments, high expenses in offshore wind energy and solar energy. The second part comments the decision taken by the government for a closer relationship between Areva and EDF, the perspectives for Areva associated with the extension of French reactor lifetime, new orientation of activities and definition of a new strategy for Areva

Leopold Infeld: Hope Lost, Hope Regained

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richmond, T.

1999-01-01

This lecture was delivered by the author of the book ''Konin: A Quest'', which describes the history of the Jewish community in the small town of Konin in central Poland. Unable at that time to find employment in any university in Poland, Leopold Infeld served there as headmaster of a Jewish co-educational high school between 1922 and 1924. Drawing on his own researches as well as Infeld's memoir ''Quest: The Evolution of a Scientist'', the author presents Infeld within the context of his family's social and religious background, and his ''exile'' years as a teacher in Konin, evoking a little-known period in the scientist's life. (author)

E-learning is regaining in importance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schmidt, T. [LernQuotient, Huerth (Germany)

2007-07-01

Today - after its introduction about 10 years ago and a phase of disillusion - companies are now more investing in e-learning. Learning according to previous knowledge and the possibility to teach and circulate knowledge worldwide within a relatively short period of time are considered as advantages. Good e-learning products and qualified mentoring are decisive to make e-learning a success. In numerous case e-learning is the optimum possibility to spread knowledge quickly and sustainably. (orig.)

Auditory processing during deep propofol sedation and recovery from unconsciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Koelsch, Stefan; Heinke, Wolfgang; Sammler, Daniela; Olthoff, Derk

2006-08-01

Using evoked potentials, this study investigated effects of deep propofol sedation, and effects of recovery from unconsciousness, on the processing of auditory information with stimuli suited to elicit a physical MMN, and a (music-syntactic) ERAN. Levels of sedation were assessed using the Bispectral Index (BIS) and the Modified Observer's Assessment of Alertness and Sedation Scale (MOAAS). EEG-measurements were performed during wakefulness, deep propofol sedation (MOAAS 2-3, mean BIS=68), and a recovery period. Between deep sedation and recovery period, the infusion rate of propofol was increased to achieve unconsciousness (MOAAS 0-1, mean BIS=35); EEG measurements of recovery period were performed after subjects regained consciousness. During deep sedation, the physical MMN was markedly reduced, but still significant. No ERAN was observed in this level. A clear P3a was elicited during deep sedation by those deviants, which were task-relevant during the awake state. As soon as subjects regained consciousness during the recovery period, a normal MMN was elicited. By contrast, the P3a was absent in the recovery period, and the P3b was markedly reduced. Results indicate that the auditory sensory memory (as indexed by the physical MMN) is still active, although strongly reduced, during deep sedation (MOAAS 2-3). The presence of the P3a indicates that attention-related processes are still operating during this level. Processes of syntactic analysis appear to be abolished during deep sedation. After propofol-induced anesthesia, the auditory sensory memory appears to operate normal as soon as subjects regain consciousness, whereas the attention-related processes indexed by P3a and P3b are markedly impaired. Results inform about effects of sedative drugs on auditory and attention-related mechanisms. The findings are important because these mechanisms are prerequisites for auditory awareness, auditory learning and memory, as well as language perception during anesthesia.

Factors associated with long-term weight-loss maintenance following bariatric surgery in adolescents with severe obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryder, J R; Gross, A C; Fox, C K; Kaizer, A M; Rudser, K D; Jenkins, T M; Ratcliff, M B; Kelly, A S; Kirk, S; Siegel, R M; Inge, T H

2018-01-01

Bariatric surgery produces robust weight loss, however, factors associated with long-term weight-loss maintenance among adolescents undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery are unknown. Fifty adolescents (mean±s.d. age and body mass index (BMI)=17.1±1.7 years and 59±11 kg m -2 ) underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, had follow-up visits at 1 year and at a visit between 5 and 12 years following surgery (Follow-up of Adolescent Bariatric Surgery at 5 Plus years (FABS-5+) visit; mean±s.d. 8.1±1.6 years). A non-surgical comparison group (n=30; mean±s.d. age and BMI=15.3±1.7 years and BMI=52±8 kg m -2 ) was recruited to compare weight trajectories over time. Questionnaires (health-related and eating behaviors, health responsibility, impact of weight on quality of life (QOL), international physical activity questionnaire and dietary habits via surgery guidelines) were administered at the FABS-5+ visit. Post hoc, participants were split into two groups: long-term weight-loss maintainers (n=23; baseline BMI=58.2 kg m -2 ; 1-year BMI=35.8 kg m -2 ; FABS-5+ BMI=34.9 kg m -2 ) and re-gainers (n=27; baseline BMI=59.8 kg m -2 ; 1-year BMI=36.8 kg m -2 ; FABS-5+ BMI=48.0 kg m -2 ) to compare factors which might contribute to differences. Data were analyzed using generalized estimating equations adjusted for age, sex, baseline BMI, baseline diabetes status and length of follow-up. The BMI of the surgical group declined from baseline to 1 year (-38.5±6.9%), which, despite some regain, was largely maintained until FABS-5+ (-29.6±13.9% change). The BMI of the comparison group increased from baseline to the FABS-5+ visit (+10.3±20.6%). When the surgical group was split into maintainers and re-gainers, no differences in weight-related and eating behaviors, health responsibility, physical activity/inactivity, or dietary habits were observed between groups. However, at FABS-5+, maintainers had greater overall QOL scores than re-gainers

Dante, psychoanalysis, and the (erotic) meaning of meaning.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatcher, E R

1990-01-01

The author observes a resemblance between (1) the "polysemous" technique of imputing meaning to reality practiced in medieval biblical studies and in Dante's writing and (2) the technique of interpretation in contemporary psychoanalysis. She explores the roots of this resemblance in the development of intellectual history and provides examples of polysemous meanings in Dante's Divine Comedy, which is in part an autobiographical journey of self-reflection and self-realization (like psychoanalysis). She then suggests some implications of this resemblance for contemporary psychiatry.

Agency, Context and Meaning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Folkmann, Mads Nygaard

2014-01-01

The paper is a meta-discursive contribution to the discussion of how design can be understood as a medium of meaning formation and questioning of meaning. Further, the paper builds on plea for the role of humanities in relation to formulate relevant questions in design through conceptualizing the...... of meaning formulation and cultural contexts and, by this, contest design. In reflecting the foundational ground of design in terms of its agency, contexts and meaning constituents, design and its questioning of meaning can be critically reframed.......The paper is a meta-discursive contribution to the discussion of how design can be understood as a medium of meaning formation and questioning of meaning. Further, the paper builds on plea for the role of humanities in relation to formulate relevant questions in design through conceptualizing...... history, 2) the question of context in and of design, i.e. which contexts give meaning to design; this question calls for interpretive models of cultural analysis of the circuit of design in acknowledging phases and aspects of production, mediation and consumption, and 3) the question of the meaning...

Identify Web-page Content meaning using Knowledge based System for Dual Meaning Words

OpenAIRE

Sinha, Sukanta; Dattagupta, Rana; Mukhopadhyay, Debajyoti

2012-01-01

Meaning of Web-page content plays a big role while produced a search result from a search engine. Most of the cases Web-page meaning stored in title or meta-tag area but those meanings do not always match with Web-page content. To overcome this situation we need to go through the Web-page content to identify the Web-page meaning. In such cases, where Webpage content holds dual meaning words that time it is really difficult to identify the meaning of the Web-page. In this paper, we are introdu...

Means-end chains - A means to which end?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grunert, Klaus G.

2010-01-01

This paper describes the development of the means-end chain concept in consumer behaviour research, starting from the original proposal by Gutman in 1982. A lack of theoretical development - as opposed to a refinement of methodology - is argued to by the main reason why the concept, after....... This reinterpretation leads to three goals for research that could establish means-end chains as a useful theoretical concept in consumer behaviour research....

Review of Proximal Nail Antirotation (PFNA and PFNA-2 – Our Local Experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

WL Loo

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The proximal femoral nail antirotation (PFNA device was recently introduced as an option for intramedullary management of pertrochanteric hip fractures. We report here local results with this relatively new implant. Sixty-two patients with pertrochanteric or subtrochanteric fractures underwent intramedullary fixation with PFNA devices in our centre during the 14 month period from September 2008 to October 2009. Data for this report were retrieved from clinical case records and operative notes. We recorded the age, gender, length of stay and operative time, preoperative ambulatory status and days required to regain mobility. Fractures were classified using the AO classification (A1, A2 and A3. Complications were also identified.There were 15 male and 47 female patients and the mean age was 74.3 years. The mean surgical duration was 76.1min and the average length of hospitalisation was 14.5 days. Five cases were noted to have femoral shaft fracture and no occurrences of screw cutout. We found that 83.9% of the patients were able to regain preoperative mobility status by 6 months following surgery. We conclude that the PFNA is an effective implant for stabilisation of proximal hip fractures and that the local complication rate is similar to reports from other centres.

DNSC08 mean sea surface and mean dynamic topography models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per

2009-01-01

-2004. It is the first global MSS without a polar gap including all of the Arctic Ocean by including laser altimetry from the ICESat mission. The mean dynamic topography (MDT) is the quantity that bridges the geoid and the mean sea surface constraining large-scale ocean circulation. Here we present a new high...

Meaning in mathematics education

CERN Document Server

Valero, Paola; Hoyles, Celia; Skovsmose, Ole

2005-01-01

What does it mean to know mathematics? How does meaning in mathematics education connect to common sense or to the meaning of mathematics itself? How are meanings constructed and communicated and what are the dilemmas related to these processes? There are many answers to these questions, some of which might appear to be contradictory. Thus understanding the complexity of meaning in mathematics education is a matter of huge importance. There are twin directions in which discussions have developed - theoretical and practical - and this book seeks to move the debate forward along both dimensions while seeking to relate them where appropriate. A discussion of meaning can start from a theoretical examination of mathematics and how mathematicians over time have made sense of their work. However, from a more practical perspective, anybody involved in teaching mathematics is faced with the need to orchestrate the myriad of meanings derived from multiple sources that students develop of mathematical knowledge.

[Meaning in life and mental health: personal meaning systems of psychotherapists and psychotherapy patients].

Science.gov (United States)

Löffler, Sabine; Knappe, Rainer; Joraschky, Peter; Pöhlmann, Karin

2010-01-01

This study investigated differences in the personal meaning systems of psychotherapists and psychotherapy patients as well as correlations between meaning in life and mental health. We qualitatively assessed the content and structure of the personal meaning systems of 41 psychotherapists and 77 psychotherapy patients. In addition, the participants completed questionnaires measuring meaning in life (LRI-r-d), sense of coherence (SOC-9L), self-esteem (RSES), satisfaction with life (SWLS), self-efficacy (SWK), and depression (BDI). The personal meaning systems of psychotherapists were more complex and coherent compared to psychotherapy patients. In the group of psychotherapy patients, a more elaborate structure of the personal meaning system correlated with the subjective sense of meaning. We were able to confirm correlations between meaning in life and mental health for most of the instances. Psychotherapists had more elaborate and coherent meaning systems than psychotherapy patients. Especially for psychotherapy patients elaborate and coherent meaning systems turned out to be important for mental health.

Disremembering the holocaust.

Science.gov (United States)

Kannai, Ruth

2012-11-01

The essay describes an elderly Holocaust survivor, who re-experiences the horrors of the Holocaust through his senile hallucinations. Although he is demented, telling and re-telling the story to a therapist helps him regain a sense of control and feel less frightened. He is finally able to revise the nightmarish story into a narrative that enables him to find strength and meaning. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sequins, sass, and sisterhood: an exploration of older women's belly dancing.

Science.gov (United States)

Moe, Angela M

2014-01-01

Disempowering stereotypes plague public perceptions of older women's bodies, particularly within Western contemporary societies. Consequently, as women age, their bodies often become sources of shame, discomfort, and ridicule. Belly dance, as a form of recreative leisure, provides a unique and somewhat unexpected space for women to subvert such perceptions. Based on qualitative interviews with older American women who belly dance, this article examines the ways in which this form of recreation provides participants a means of (re)gaining mobility, (re)claiming social space, (re)building social support, and (re)defining what it means to be sensual later in life.

Subspace K-means clustering.

Science.gov (United States)

Timmerman, Marieke E; Ceulemans, Eva; De Roover, Kim; Van Leeuwen, Karla

2013-12-01

To achieve an insightful clustering of multivariate data, we propose subspace K-means. Its central idea is to model the centroids and cluster residuals in reduced spaces, which allows for dealing with a wide range of cluster types and yields rich interpretations of the clusters. We review the existing related clustering methods, including deterministic, stochastic, and unsupervised learning approaches. To evaluate subspace K-means, we performed a comparative simulation study, in which we manipulated the overlap of subspaces, the between-cluster variance, and the error variance. The study shows that the subspace K-means algorithm is sensitive to local minima but that the problem can be reasonably dealt with by using partitions of various cluster procedures as a starting point for the algorithm. Subspace K-means performs very well in recovering the true clustering across all conditions considered and appears to be superior to its competitor methods: K-means, reduced K-means, factorial K-means, mixtures of factor analyzers (MFA), and MCLUST. The best competitor method, MFA, showed a performance similar to that of subspace K-means in easy conditions but deteriorated in more difficult ones. Using data from a study on parental behavior, we show that subspace K-means analysis provides a rich insight into the cluster characteristics, in terms of both the relative positions of the clusters (via the centroids) and the shape of the clusters (via the within-cluster residuals).

Neutron mean annihilation time and inverse of the mean annihilation rate in nuclear reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hayashi, Masatoshi

1999-01-01

There is a dogma in nuclear reactor theory that in a critical reactor the mean annihilation time of neutron is equal to the mean generation time. The author insists that this is a dogma from the basic reexamination of the mean annihilation time of neutron. There are two kinds of neutrons, one participating in chain reactions and the other not participating in chain reactions. The mean annihilation time of neutron is the mean time of the time to annihilation of all neutrons generated in the reactor. The 'prompt neutron life' as a dynamic characteristic parameter proper to nuclear reactor can not be understood as the mean time of neutron to annihilation. The author explains the logic quantitatively with two kinds of nuclear reactors, a bare reactor and an infinite reactor, for which two different mean neutron annihilation times can be defined. Thus, (1) the inverse of the annihilation rate can not simply be considered as the mean annihilation time, (2) the mean annihilation time of a critical reactor is not necessarily equal to the mean generation time, and (3) the prompt neutron life used as a dynamic characteristic parameter of a nuclear reactor can not be understood as the mean time of neutron to annihilation. (M.M.)

Mean-periodic functions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos A. Berenstein

1980-01-01

Full Text Available We show that any mean-periodic function f can be represented in terms of exponential-polynomial solutions of the same convolution equation f satisfies, i.e., u∗f=0(μ∈E′(ℝn. This extends to n-variables the work of L. Schwartz on mean-periodicity and also extends L. Ehrenpreis' work on partial differential equations with constant coefficients to arbitrary convolutors. We also answer a number of open questions about mean-periodic functions of one variable. The basic ingredient is our work on interpolation by entire functions in one and several complex variables.

Meaning and death-thought accessibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Tongeren, Daryl R; Green, Jeffrey D

2018-01-01

Meaning is a central feature in human life, but death can disrupt a sense of meaning. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that meaning in life and meaning in death are distinct types of meaning when mortality is salient and differentially affect death-thought accessibility (DTA). In Experiment 1, imagining a specific scenario in which meaning is preserved beyond death reduced DTA relative to a standard mortality salience prime; moreover, these effects were not due to changes in self-esteem. In Experiment 2, imagining a meaningful life when mortality is salient elicited greater DTA, whereas imagining meaning in death elicited less DTA. Imbuing death with meaning attenuates DTA, whereas meaning in life increases DTA. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Culture as meaning-making

OpenAIRE

Lenkauskienė, Rūta; Liubinienė, Vilmantė

2002-01-01

The present paper analyses the role of social and cultural background knowledge in the cognition of meaning. Language and culture integrated studies have long been in the focus of attention. In order to study the language of a target culture, one should understand how human beings construct meanings, understand processes of meaning-making, account for different meanings, and examine their effects in social life. The language cannot be interpreted in the right way without taking the target cul...

Music, Meaning and Culture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Widdess

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This paper situates musical meaning in culture, addressing music as social symbol and as ongoing process of meaning creation. Three examples of non- Western musical practice are used to illustrate the embedding of musical meaning in cultural context. The performance of an Australian Aboriginal song is shown to exemplify the interdependence of song style and social structure as a matrix for the emergence of cultural meanings; an example of North Indian performance is adduced to demonstrate the multi-layered nature of meaning as embodied in musical performance; and an example of collective festival performance from Nepal illustrates ways in which the structure of musical performance can mirror local cultural forms. Each of the three examples lends weight to the idea that music's meanings are often non-linguistic and reflect foundational schemas that are specific to the cultures from the musics are drawn.

Dietary patterns in weight loss maintenance: results from the MedWeight study.

Science.gov (United States)

Karfopoulou, Eleni; Brikou, Dora; Mamalaki, Eirini; Bersimis, Fragiskos; Anastasiou, Costas A; Hill, James O; Yannakoulia, Mary

2017-04-01

The dietary habits contributing to weight loss maintenance are not sufficiently understood. We studied weight loss maintainers in comparison with regainers, to identify the differentiating behaviors. The MedWeight study is a Greek registry of weight loss maintainers and regainers. Participants had intentionally lost ≥10 % of their weight and either had maintained this loss for over a year, or had regained weight. Questionnaires on demographics and lifestyle habits were completed online. Dietary assessment was carried out by two telephone 24-h recalls. Present analysis focused on 361 participants (32 years old, 39 % men): 264 maintainers and 97 regainers. Energy and macronutrient intake did not differ by maintenance status (1770 ± 651 kcal in maintainers vs. 1845 ± 678 kcal in regainers, p = 0.338), although protein intake per kg of body weight was higher in maintainers (1.02 ± 0.39 vs. 0.83 ± 0.28 g/kg in regainers, p meal preparation and eating at home for men, and a higher eating frequency and slower eating rate for women. Men maintaining weight loss were much more likely to adhere to a healthy eating pattern. Eating at home, involvement in meal preparation, higher eating frequency and slower eating rate were also associated with maintenance. These lifestyle habits of successful maintainers provide target behaviors to improve obesity treatment.

A double inequality for bounding Toader mean by the centroidal mean

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

A double inequality for bounding Toader mean by the centroidal mean. YUN HUA1,∗ and FENG QI2. 1Department of Information Engineering, Weihai Vocational College, Weihai City,. Shandong Province 264210, China. 2College of Mathematics, Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao City,. Inner Mongolia ...

Trends in mean maximum temperature, mean minimum temperature and mean relative humidity for Lautoka, Fiji during 2003 – 2013

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syed S. Ghani

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The current work observes the trends in Lautoka’s temperature and relative humidity during the period 2003 – 2013, which were analyzed using the recently updated data obtained from Fiji Meteorological Services (FMS. Four elements, mean maximum temperature, mean minimum temperature along with diurnal temperature range (DTR and mean relative humidity are investigated. From 2003–2013, the annual mean temperature has been enhanced between 0.02 and 0.080C. The heating is more in minimum temperature than in maximum temperature, resulting in a decrease of diurnal temperature range. The statistically significant increase was mostly seen during the summer months of December and January. Mean Relative Humidity has also increased from 3% to 8%. The bases of abnormal climate conditions are also studied. These bases were defined with temperature or humidity anomalies in their appropriate time sequences. These established the observed findings and exhibited that climate has been becoming gradually damper and heater throughout Lautoka during this period. While we are only at an initial phase in the probable inclinations of temperature changes, ecological reactions to recent climate change are already evidently noticeable. So it is proposed that it would be easier to identify climate alteration in a small island nation like Fiji.

Supportive College Environment for Meaning Searching and Meaning in Life among American College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Joo Yeon; Steger, Michael F.

2016-01-01

We examined whether American college students who perceive their college environment as supportive for their meaning searching report higher levels of meaning in life. We also examined whether students' perception of college environmental support for meaning searching moderates the relation between the presence of and search for meaning. Students'…

A double inequality for bounding Toader mean by the centroidal mean

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Annual Meetings · Mid Year Meetings · Discussion Meetings · Public Lectures · Lecture Workshops · Refresher Courses · Symposia · Live Streaming. Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 124; Issue 4. A double inequality for bounding Toader mean by the centroidal mean. Yun Hua Feng Qi.

Mean field games

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.

2014-01-06

In this talk we will report on new results concerning the existence of smooth solutions for time dependent mean-field games. This new result is established through a combination of various tools including several a-priori estimates for time-dependent mean-field games combined with new techniques for the regularity of Hamilton-Jacobi equations.

Mean field games

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.

2014-01-01

In this talk we will report on new results concerning the existence of smooth solutions for time dependent mean-field games. This new result is established through a combination of various tools including several a-priori estimates for time-dependent mean-field games combined with new techniques for the regularity of Hamilton-Jacobi equations.

Mean--variance portfolio optimization when means and covariances are unknown

OpenAIRE

Tze Leung Lai; Haipeng Xing; Zehao Chen

2011-01-01

Markowitz's celebrated mean--variance portfolio optimization theory assumes that the means and covariances of the underlying asset returns are known. In practice, they are unknown and have to be estimated from historical data. Plugging the estimates into the efficient frontier that assumes known parameters has led to portfolios that may perform poorly and have counter-intuitive asset allocation weights; this has been referred to as the "Markowitz optimization enigma." After reviewing differen...

The dance of meaning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Ole Elstrup

2005-01-01

competence, qualifications, sense making, reasoning, meaning, intentionality, interpersonal relationship......competence, qualifications, sense making, reasoning, meaning, intentionality, interpersonal relationship...

Time Scale Inequalities of the Ostrowski Type for Functions Differentiable on the Coordinates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eze R. Nwaeze

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In 2016, some inequalities of the Ostrowski type for functions (of two variables differentiable on the coordinates were established. In this paper, we extend these results to an arbitrary time scale by means of a parameter λ∈0,1. The aforementioned results are regained for the case when the time scale T=R. Besides extension, our results are employed to the continuous and discrete calculus to get some new inequalities in this direction.

A Parametric k-Means Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Tarpey, Thaddeus

2007-01-01

Summary The k points that optimally represent a distribution (usually in terms of a squared error loss) are called the k principal points. This paper presents a computationally intensive method that automatically determines the principal points of a parametric distribution. Cluster means from the k-means algorithm are nonparametric estimators of principal points. A parametric k-means approach is introduced for estimating principal points by running the k-means algorithm on a very large simulated data set from a distribution whose parameters are estimated using maximum likelihood. Theoretical and simulation results are presented comparing the parametric k-means algorithm to the usual k-means algorithm and an example on determining sizes of gas masks is used to illustrate the parametric k-means algorithm. PMID:17917692

Means of Hilbert space operators

CERN Document Server

Hiai, Fumio

2003-01-01

The monograph is devoted to a systematic study of means of Hilbert space operators by a unified method based on the theory of double integral transformations and Peller's characterization of Schur multipliers. General properties on means of operators such as comparison results, norm estimates and convergence criteria are established. After some general theory, special investigations are focused on three one-parameter families of A-L-G (arithmetic-logarithmic-geometric) interpolation means, Heinz-type means and binomial means. In particular, norm continuity in the parameter is examined for such means. Some necessary technical results are collected as appendices.

Long term effects of a continuous and intermittent aerobic exercise on weight changes and body fat percentage in overweight and obese women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alizadeh Z

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Obesity and sedentary lifestyle are growing problem. The global community's concern is to find the best strategy to obtain a more efficient process of weight reduction, increase physical activity, and minimize weight regain level. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term effects of a short-term intervention on weight changes.Methods: The present study is a one-year follow-up study of a 12-week intervention during which the 15 individuals in the intermittent group performed 40 minutes exercise in three bouts per day; however, the 15 participants of the continuous group did the same but 40 minutes continuously. The 15 participants in the control group had no exercise prescription. After one year, weight changes, body fat percentage, and BMI were re-evaluated in the groups.Results: After adjusting the baseline weight, patterns of change in the mean weights from the end of the third month to the twelfth month were different across groups (P=0.02. After significant weight loss in the intermittent group, the mean weight in this group increased by 2.32 kilograms during the period, although not statistically significant. No increase was observed in the control group’s mean weight (P=1.00. In the continuous group, the mean weight increased statistically (P=0.048, 3.63 kilograms.Conclusion: It seems that long-term effects of moderate intensity intermittent aerobic exercise in overweight and obese women on weight control are more efficient than those of continuous exercise. However, for a change in lifestyle and prevention of weight regain, longer follow-ups are required.

The occurrence of osteoarthritis at a minimum of ten years after reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patt Thomas W

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the incidence of radiographic osteoarthritis in the operated knee in comparison with the contralateral knee ten years after a bone-tendon bone patellar autograft ACL-reconstruction and to evaluate to which level patients regain activity ten years after reconstruction. Methods Fifty-three patients with ACL instability were operated arthroscopically using the central third of the patellar tendon as a bone-tendon-bone autograft. At a minimum of 10 year follow up 28/44 patients matched the inclusion criteria and could be reached for follow-up. Evaluation included a patient satisfaction evaluation using a Visual Analog Scale, physical examination (International Knee Documentation Committee score, Tegner score, Lysholm score, KT-1000 stabilometry and a radiological evaluation (Kellgren and Fairbanks classification. Results The patients' satisfaction, at a mean of 10,3 year follow-up, measured with a VAS score (0–10 was high with a mean of 8.5 (range 4 to 10. The KT 1000 arthrometer laxity measurements revealed in 55% of the patients an A rating (1–2 mm, in 29% a B rating (3–5 mm and in 16% a C rating (6–10 mm. According to the Tegner score 54% of the patients were able to perform at the same activity level as pre-operatively. The mean pre-operative Tegner score was 6.8 and the mean post-operative Tegner score was 6.0 at final follow up. The Lysholm score showed satisfactory results with a mean of 91 points (range 56 to 100. According to the Kellgren and Fairbank classifications, there is a significant difference (p Conclusion The patellar BTB ACL reconstruction does not prevent the occurrence of radiological OA after 10 years but does help the patient to regain the pre-operative level of activity.

Using the Binomial Series to Prove the Arithmetic Mean-Geometric Mean Inequality

Science.gov (United States)

Persky, Ronald L.

2003-01-01

In 1968, Leon Gerber compared (1 + x)[superscript a] to its kth partial sum as a binomial series. His result is stated and, as an application of this result, a proof of the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality is presented.

Metabolic adjustments with the development, treatment, and recurrence of obesity in obesity-prone rats.

Science.gov (United States)

MacLean, Paul S; Higgins, Janine A; Johnson, Ginger C; Fleming-Elder, Brooke K; Peters, John C; Hill, James O

2004-08-01

Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions and predisposes afflicted individuals to several comorbidities. For these individuals, losing weight has proven to be an easier feat than maintaining a reduced weight. In obesity-prone rats, we examined if there is a metabolic propensity to regain weight after a period of significant weight loss. Twenty-four-hour energy expenditure (EE), sleeping metabolic rate (SMR), and nonprotein respiratory quotient (NPRQ) were obtained by indirect calorimetry with urinary nitrogen analysis and normalized to fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) acquired by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Obesity-prone rats were examined after free access to a high-fat diet for 16 wk to establish the obese state. They were again examined after 2 wk of calorie restriction, which reduced body weight (14%) and FM (32%). Rats were again examined after a further 8 wk of intake-regulated weight maintenance or ad libitum feeding that led to weight regain. Metabolic data were compared with preobese and age-matched controls. Weight loss suppressed EE and SMR beyond what was expected for the change in metabolic mass. This elevated metabolic efficiency persisted throughout weight maintenance but resolved after 8 wk of regain. Adjusted NPRQ values were elevated in weight-maintained and weight-regaining rats, suggesting a preference for carbohydrate utilization. These data support the concept that weight reduction in obesity is accompanied by metabolic adjustments beyond the drive to consume calories that predispose to weight regain, and some aspects of this adjustment persist with prolonged weight maintenance and during weight regain.

The relationship between pretreatment dietary composition and weight loss during a randomised trial of different diet approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

McVay, M A; Jeffreys, A S; King, H A; Olsen, M K; Voils, C I; Yancy, W S

2015-02-01

Identifying pretreatment dietary habits that are associated with weight-loss intervention outcomes could help guide individuals' selection of weight-loss approach among competing options. A pretreatment factor that may influence weight-loss outcomes is macronutrient intake. Overweight and obese Durham Veterans Affairs outpatients were randomised to a weight-loss intervention with a low-carbohydrate diet (n = 71) or orlistat medication therapy plus a low-fat diet (n = 73). Percentage fat, carbohydrate and protein intake prior to treatment were measured using 4-day food records. Linear mixed-effects models were used to determine whether pretreatment percentage macronutrient intake influenced weight trajectories and weight loss in each weight-loss condition. Participant's mean age was 53 years, baseline body mass index was 39.3 kg m(-2) and 72% were male. A higher pretreatment percentage carbohydrate intake was associated with less rapid initial weight loss (P = 0.02) and less rapid weight regain (P = 0.03) in the low-carbohydrate diet condition but was not associated with weight trajectories in the orlistat plus low-fat diet condition. In both conditions, a higher pretreatment percentage fat intake was associated with more rapid weight regain (P loss on study completion in either condition. Selection of a weight-loss approach on the basis of pretreatment macronutrient intake is unlikely to improve weight outcomes at the end of a 1-year treatment. However, pretreatment macronutrient intake may have implications for tailoring of interventions to slow weight regain after weight loss. © 2013 The British Dietetic Association Ltd.

PREVENTION OF DISABILITY IN MULTI DRUG TREATED LEPROSY AFFECTED PERSONS THROUGH HOMOEOPATHY IN TWO DISTRICTS OF CHHATTISGARH, INDIA – A PILOT STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Chakraborty

2015-12-01

Full Text Available A project was undertaken and total 2785 leprosy patients of two districts namely Janjgir-Champa and Raigarh of a state of Chhattisgarh in India, who completed MDT but suffering from loss of sensation in their hand and feet and/or chronic ulcer were registered. Homeopathic medicines were applied and the effects were analyzed by different parameters and documented. Complete regain of sensation was recorded in 63.2% patients and 28.73% showed partial regain whereas no regain of sensation recorded in patients 8.04% and healing of ulcer was recorded in 69% of patients. Key words:

Who benefits from reduced reproduction in parasitized hosts? An experimental test using the Pasteuria ramosa-Daphnia magna system.

Science.gov (United States)

Mageroy, Jon H; Grepperud, Eldfrid J; Jensen, Knut Helge

2011-12-01

We investigated whether parasites or hosts benefit from reduced reproduction in infected hosts. When parasites castrate their hosts, the regain of host reproduction is necessary for castration to be a host adaptation. When infecting Daphnia magna with Pasteuria ramosa, in a lake water based medium, 49 2% of the castrated females regained reproduction. We investigated the relationship between castration level, and parasite and host fitness proxies to determine the adaptive value of host castration. Hosts which regained reproduction contained less spores and had a higher lifetime reproduction than permanently castrated hosts. We also found a negative correlation between parasite and host lifetime reproduction. For hosts which regained reproduction we found no optimal level of castration associated with lifetime reproduction. These results support the view that host castration only is adaptive to the parasite in this system. In addition, we suggest that permanent castration might not be the norm under natural conditions in this system. Finally, we argue that a reduction in host reproduction is more likely to evolve as a property favouring parasites rather than hosts. To our knowledge this is the only experimental study to investigate the adaptive value of reduced host reproduction when castrated hosts can regain reproduction.

National Strategy for Regaining Control Over Orphan Sources and Improving Control Over Vulnerable Sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

The IAEA's Statute authorizes the Agency to 'establish or adopt standards of safety for protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property' - standards that the IAEA must use in its own operations, and which States can apply by means of their regulatory provisions for nuclear and radiation safety. The IAEA does this in consultation with the competent organs of the United Nations and with the specialized agencies concerned. A comprehensive set of high quality standards under regular review is a key element of a stable and sustainable global safety regime, as is the IAEA's assistance in their application. The IAEA commenced its safety standards programme in 1958. The emphasis placed on quality, fitness for purpose and continuous improvement has led to the widespread use of the IAEA standards throughout the world. The Safety Standards Series now includes unified Fundamental Safety Principles, which represent an international consensus on what must constitute a high level of protection and safety. With the strong support of the Commission on Safety Standards, the IAEA is working to promote the global acceptance and use of its standards. Standards are only effective if they are properly applied in practice. The IAEA's safety services encompass design, siting and engineering safety, operational safety, radiation safety, safe transport of radioactive material and safe management of radioactive waste, as well as governmental organization, regulatory matters and safety culture in organizations. These safety services assist Member States in the application of the standards and enable valuable experience and insights to be shared. Regulating safety is a national responsibility, and many States have decided to adopt the IAEA's standards for use in their national regulations. For parties to the various international safety conventions, IAEA standards provide a consistent, reliable means of ensuring the effective fulfilment of obligations under the conventions

On some problems of meaning - polysemy between sense enumeration and core meaning paradigms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dobrić Nikola

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Polysemy is a semantic phenomenon which occurs when one lexical item has more meanings which can be seen as related to each other. It is to be distinguished from the other extreme pole of ambiguity, homonymy, which occurs when two or more unrelated meanings are by means of an etymological accident tied to the same orthographic and/or phonological form. Even though polysemy can be considered as a non-issue, since discourse easily solves all of the problems of possible ambiguity for use in everyday language use, accounting for it (in an systematic manner in terms of how polysemy is represented in the mental lexicon and how to account for the criteria governing the meaning distinctions and the interaction of meanings, for example, is a challenge still not fully met. The paper first gives an overview of the existing theoretical accounts of polysemy which arose over the course of the last two centuries to meet one of the said challenges, namely how polysemy is represented in our minds. The discussion is followed up by a conclusion of the predominant and most plausible theoretical view on multiple meanings stemming from the presented philosophical, semantic, and cognitive frameworks and models.

Prediction on long-term mean and mean square pollutant concentrations in an urban atmosphere

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kumar, S; Lamb, R G; Seinfeld, J H

1976-01-01

The general problem of predicting long-term average (say yearly) pollutant concentrations in an urban atmosphere is formulated. The pollutant concentration can be viewed as a random process, the complete description of which requires knowledge of its probability density function, which is unknown. The mean concentration is the first moment of the concentration distribution, and at present there exist a number of models for predicting the long-term mean concentration of an inert pollutant. The second moment, or mean square concentration, indicates additional features of the distribution, such as the level of fluctuations about the mean. In the paper a model proposed by Lamb for the long-term mean concentration is reviewed, and a new model for prediction of the long-term mean square concentration of an inert air pollutant is derived. The properties and uses of the model are discussed, and the equations defining the model are presented in a form for direct application to an urban area.

How Ordinary Meaning Underpins the Meaning of Mathematics.

Science.gov (United States)

Ormell, Christopher

1991-01-01

Discusses the meaning of mathematics by looking at its uses in the real world. Offers mathematical modeling as a way to represent mathematical applications in real or potential situations. Presents levels of applicability, modus operandi, relationship to "pure mathematics," and consequences for education for mathematical modeling. (MDH)

Some Elementary Aspects of Means

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mowaffaq Hajja

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We raise several elementary questions pertaining to various aspects of means. These questions refer to both known and newly introduced families of means, and include questions of characterizations of certain families, relations among certain families, comparability among the members of certain families, and concordance of certain sequences of means. They also include questions about internality tests for certain mean-looking functions and about certain triangle centers viewed as means of the vertices. The questions are accessible to people with no background in means, and it is also expected that these people can seriously investigate, and contribute to the solutions of, these problems. The solutions are expected to require no more than simple tools from analysis, algebra, functional equations, and geometry.

Lectures on mean curvature flows

CERN Document Server

Zhu, Xi-Ping

2002-01-01

"Mean curvature flow" is a term that is used to describe the evolution of a hypersurface whose normal velocity is given by the mean curvature. In the simplest case of a convex closed curve on the plane, the properties of the mean curvature flow are described by Gage-Hamilton's theorem. This theorem states that under the mean curvature flow, the curve collapses to a point, and if the flow is diluted so that the enclosed area equals \\pi, the curve tends to the unit circle. In this book, the author gives a comprehensive account of fundamental results on singularities and the asymptotic behavior of mean curvature flows in higher dimensions. Among other topics, he considers in detail Huisken's theorem (a generalization of Gage-Hamilton's theorem to higher dimension), evolution of non-convex curves and hypersurfaces, and the classification of singularities of the mean curvature flow. Because of the importance of the mean curvature flow and its numerous applications in differential geometry and partial differential ...

When does return of voluntary finger extension occur post-stroke? A prospective cohort study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Winters, Caroline; Kwakkel, Gert; Nijland, Rinske; Van Wegen, Erwin

2016-01-01

Objectives: Patients without voluntary finger extension early post-stroke are suggested to have a poor prognosis for regaining upper limb capacity at 6 months. Despite this poor prognosis, a number of patients do regain upper limb capacity. We aimed to determine the time window for return of

Meaning in couples relationships.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigues T.F.

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Based on psycholinguistics and L. Vygotsky’s (2007 theories on sign, meaning and sense categories, as later discussed by A. Leontiev (2004, 2009, we present a case study that focuses on the intricacies of a love relationship for a woman who remained in a painful marriage. Interview material is presented in a Relational-Historical Psychology theoretical framework to provide central categories of meaning and sense. This is understood as a privileged method for apprehending the uniqueness of a human being. To segment the qualitative material, we used the “Analysis of the Nuclei of Meanings for the Apprehension of the Constitution of Sense,” by Aguiar and Ozella (2006, 2013. This approach seeks to discriminate the meanings and senses that constitute the content of a speech sample.

Meaning in Matter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brix, Anders

2013-01-01

When addressing present-day challenges, design discourse put faith mainly in design understood as a problem-solving activity, pertaining to innovation on functional, systems and technological level. The aesthetically founded fields, e.g. craft-based design, on the other hand, do not seem to play ...... - in particular those which carry _corporeal affordance_, such as clothing, blankets, chairs, tables and houses - perhaps even cities. Things that mean to us, what they mean, mainly _qua_ their physical properties....

Stats means business

CERN Document Server

Buglear, John

2010-01-01

Stats Means Business is an introductory textbook written for Business, Hospitality and Tourism students who take modules on Statistics or Quantitative research methods. Recognising that most users of this book will have limited if any grounding in the subject, this book minimises technical language, provides clear definition of key terms, and gives emphasis to interpretation rather than technique.Stats Means Business enables readers to:appreciate the importance of statistical analysis in business, hospitality and tourism understand statis

Court interpreting and pragmatic meaning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Bente

In Denmark, court interpreters are required to deliver verbatim translations of speakers' originals and to refrain from transferring pragmatic meaning. Yet, as this paper demonstrates, pragmatic meaning is central to courtroom interaction.......In Denmark, court interpreters are required to deliver verbatim translations of speakers' originals and to refrain from transferring pragmatic meaning. Yet, as this paper demonstrates, pragmatic meaning is central to courtroom interaction....

How Search for Meaning Interacts with Complex Categories of Meaning in Life and Subjective Well-Being?

Science.gov (United States)

Damásio, Bruno Figueiredo; Koller, Sílvia Helena

2015-03-03

This study sought to assess how the search for meaning interacts with crisis of meaning and with different categories of meaning in life (meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, existential indifference, and existential conflict). Furthermore, the moderation role of search for meaning between the relation of categories of meaning and subjective well-being (SWB) was also evaluated. Participants included 3,034 subjects (63.9% women) ranging in age from 18 to 91 (M = 33.90; SD = 15.01) years old from 22 Brazilian states. Zero-order correlations and a factorial MANOVA were implemented. Positive low correlations were found for search for meaning and crisis of meaning (r = .258; p < .001). Search for meaning presented a small-effect size moderation effect on the relation of the different categories of meaning with subjective happiness, F(6, 3008) = 2.698, p < .05; η2 = .004, but not for satisfaction with life, F(6, 3008) = .935, p = .47; η2 = .002. The differences on the levels of subjective happiness of those inserted in existential indifferent and conflicting categories differ depending on the levels of search for meaning. Further directions for future studies are proposed.

Soil data clustering by using K-means and fuzzy K-means algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Hot

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A problem of soil clustering based on the chemical characteristics of soil, and proper visual representation of the obtained results, is analysed in the paper. To that aim, K-means and fuzzy K-means algorithms are adapted for soil data clustering. A database of soil characteristics sampled in Montenegro is used for a comparative analysis of implemented algorithms. The procedure of setting proper values for control parameters of fuzzy K-means is illustrated on the used database. In addition, validation of clustering is made through visualisation. Classified soil data are presented on the static Google map and dynamic Open Street Map.

Means on scattered compacta

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Banakh T.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We prove that a separable Hausdor_ topological space X containing a cocountable subset homeomorphic to [0, ω1] admits no separately continuous mean operation and no diagonally continuous n-mean for n ≥ 2.

(The feeling of) meaning-as-information.

Science.gov (United States)

Heintzelman, Samantha J; King, Laura A

2014-05-01

The desire for meaning is recognized as a central human motive. Yet, knowing that people want meaning does not explain its function. What adaptive problem does this experience solve? Drawing on the feelings-as-information hypothesis, we propose that the feeling of meaning provides information about the presence of reliable patterns and coherence in the environment, information that is not provided by affect. We review research demonstrating that manipulations of stimulus coherence influence subjective reports of meaning in life but not affect. We demonstrate that manipulations that foster an associative mindset enhance meaning. The meaning-as-information perspective embeds meaning in a network of foundational functions including associative learning, perception, cognition, and neural processing. This approach challenges assumptions about meaning, including its motivational appeal, the roles of expectancies and novelty in this experience, and the notion that meaning is inherently constructed. Implications for constructed meaning and existential meanings are discussed.

Risk-sensitive mean-field games

KAUST Repository

Tembine, Hamidou

2014-04-01

In this paper, we study a class of risk-sensitive mean-field stochastic differential games. We show that under appropriate regularity conditions, the mean-field value of the stochastic differential game with exponentiated integral cost functional coincides with the value function satisfying a Hamilton -Jacobi- Bellman (HJB) equation with an additional quadratic term. We provide an explicit solution of the mean-field best response when the instantaneous cost functions are log-quadratic and the state dynamics are affine in the control. An equivalent mean-field risk-neutral problem is formulated and the corresponding mean-field equilibria are characterized in terms of backward-forward macroscopic McKean-Vlasov equations, Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equations, and HJB equations. We provide numerical examples on the mean field behavior to illustrate both linear and McKean-Vlasov dynamics. © 1963-2012 IEEE.

Risk-sensitive mean-field games

KAUST Repository

Tembine, Hamidou; Zhu, Quanyan; Başar, Tamer

2014-01-01

In this paper, we study a class of risk-sensitive mean-field stochastic differential games. We show that under appropriate regularity conditions, the mean-field value of the stochastic differential game with exponentiated integral cost functional coincides with the value function satisfying a Hamilton -Jacobi- Bellman (HJB) equation with an additional quadratic term. We provide an explicit solution of the mean-field best response when the instantaneous cost functions are log-quadratic and the state dynamics are affine in the control. An equivalent mean-field risk-neutral problem is formulated and the corresponding mean-field equilibria are characterized in terms of backward-forward macroscopic McKean-Vlasov equations, Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equations, and HJB equations. We provide numerical examples on the mean field behavior to illustrate both linear and McKean-Vlasov dynamics. © 1963-2012 IEEE.

Blood profile of proteins and steroid hormones predicts weight change after weight loss with interactions of dietary protein level and glycemic index

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Ping; Holst, Claus; Andersen, Malene R

2011-01-01

Weight regain after weight loss is common. In the Diogenes dietary intervention study, high protein and low glycemic index (GI) diet improved weight maintenance.......Weight regain after weight loss is common. In the Diogenes dietary intervention study, high protein and low glycemic index (GI) diet improved weight maintenance....

The global Minmax k-means algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiaoyan; Bai, Yanping

2016-01-01

The global k -means algorithm is an incremental approach to clustering that dynamically adds one cluster center at a time through a deterministic global search procedure from suitable initial positions, and employs k -means to minimize the sum of the intra-cluster variances. However the global k -means algorithm sometimes results singleton clusters and the initial positions sometimes are bad, after a bad initialization, poor local optimal can be easily obtained by k -means algorithm. In this paper, we modified the global k -means algorithm to eliminate the singleton clusters at first, and then we apply MinMax k -means clustering error method to global k -means algorithm to overcome the effect of bad initialization, proposed the global Minmax k -means algorithm. The proposed clustering method is tested on some popular data sets and compared to the k -means algorithm, the global k -means algorithm and the MinMax k -means algorithm. The experiment results show our proposed algorithm outperforms other algorithms mentioned in the paper.

Efficient Cardinality/Mean-Variance Portfolios

OpenAIRE

Brito, R. Pedro; Vicente, Luís Nunes

2014-01-01

International audience; We propose a novel approach to handle cardinality in portfolio selection, by means of a biobjective cardinality/mean-variance problem, allowing the investor to analyze the efficient tradeoff between return-risk and number of active positions. Recent progress in multiobjective optimization without derivatives allow us to robustly compute (in-sample) the whole cardinality/mean-variance efficient frontier, for a variety of data sets and mean-variance models. Our results s...

Effects of a combined dietary, exercise and behavioral intervention and sympathetic system on body weight maintenance after intended weight loss: results of a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Mai, Knut; Brachs, Maria; Leupelt, Verena; Schwartzenberg, Reiner Jumpertz-von; Maurer, Lukas; Grüters-Kieslich, Annette; Ernert, Andrea; Bobbert, Thomas; Krude, Heiko; Spranger, Joachim

2018-01-19

Lifestyle based weight loss interventions are hampered by long-term inefficacy. Prediction of individuals successfully reducing body weight would be highly desirable. Although sympathetic activity is known to contribute to energy homeostasis, its predictive role in body weight maintenance has not yet been addressed. We investigated, whether weight regain could be modified by a weight maintenance intervention and analyzed the predictive role of weight loss-induced changes of the sympathetic system on long-term weight regain. 156 subjects (age > 18; BMI ≥ 27 kg/m 2 ) participated in a 12-week weight reduction program. After weight loss (T0), 143 subjects (weight loss >8%) were randomized to a 12-month lifestyle intervention or a control group. After 12 months (T12) no further intervention was performed until month 18 (T18). Weight regain at T18 (regain BMI ) was the primary outcome. Evaluation of systemic and tissue specific estimates of sympathetic system was a pre-defined secondary outcome. BMI was reduced by 4.67 ± 1.47 kg/m 2 during the initial weight loss period. BMI maintained low in subjects of the intervention group until T12 (+0.07 ± 2.98 kg/m 2 ; p = 0.58 compared to T0), while control subjects regained +0.98 ± 1.93 kg/m 2 (p predicted regain BMI (R 2  = 0.138; p Predictive sympathetic activity was not persistently modified by the intervention, which may partially explain the lack of long-term success of such interventions. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

When disaster strikes, nobody can hear you scream, but a radio can help regaining your voice.

Science.gov (United States)

Radzikowski, J. R.

2017-12-01

During disaster situations, communicating with family members and authorities is a matter of priority for social tranquillity and safety. Amateur radio operators can provide a resilient and effective mean of two-way communications which remains operational even in the most damaging disasters due to the low power requirements, and the use of wireless radio signal. The standard means of communications, such as phone services and the internet might be compromised, congested or unavailable, eliminating or impairing the normal modes of communications. Even the most resilient telecommunication systems designed with failure in mind with multiple redundant mechanisms, can be shut down during extreme disasters. One of the most important factors in preparation of rescue and recovery operations during disasters, is communication on local, regional, and trans-regional levels. Professional emergency responders have access to specialized communication equipment, however these resources are not available for local emergency teams, and NGOs assisting in rescue and recovery operations. Among the statutory principles of amateur radio is providing emergency communications. Each year there are many training events where operators practice how to build and operate field communication stations, and to work with local first responders and emergency operations centers. These skills have been utilized many times during natural disaster situations in the past, and this year hurricane season was no different. When hurricane Maria caused havoc to the telephone network in Puerto Rico, radio communication organized and maintained by volunteers was crucial in relaying information from people living on the island to their families abroad, and in supporting relief operations. For several weeks after the hurricane, rescue operations organized by American Red Cross were relying on voice and digital communication provided by volunteers who responded to ARC's call for help.

Phenomenology and Meaning Attribution

African Journals Online (AJOL)

John Paley. (2017). Phenomenology as Qualitative Research: A Critical Analysis of Meaning Attribution. ... basic philosophical nature of phenomenological meaning and inquiry, and that he not ... In keeping with the title of my book, Researching. Lived Experience ...... a quantitative social science that can make generalizing.

Meaning in Work Life

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ravn, Ib

meaningful is still lacking (Harpaz & Fu, 2002), as are definitions of key terms. Here, I define meaning as the experience that something fits into a wider context or coheres within a larger whole.     I conceptualize meaning in work life as deriving from four factors, each of which helps us contribute...... to something larger than ourselves (Seligman, 2002) through our work. Thus, a person experiences meaning in work life when she... A. is able to use her signature strengths at work (Peterson and Seligman, 2004), B. makes an important contribution to the workplace (Drucker, 1999), C. participates in a productive...

Mean-field lattice trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Borgs, C.; Chayes, J.T.; Hofstad, van der R.W.; Slade, G.

1999-01-01

We introduce a mean-field model of lattice trees based on embeddings into d of abstract trees having a critical Poisson offspring distribution. This model provides a combinatorial interpretation for the self-consistent mean-field model introduced previously by Derbez and Slade [9], and provides an

Mean-Coherent Risk and Mean-Variance Approaches in Portfolio Selection : An Empirical Comparison

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Polbennikov, S.Y.; Melenberg, B.

2005-01-01

We empirically analyze the implementation of coherent risk measures in portfolio selection.First, we compare optimal portfolios obtained through mean-coherent risk optimization with corresponding mean-variance portfolios.We find that, even for a typical portfolio of equities, the outcomes can be

Mean Orbital Elements for Geosynchronous Orbit - II - Orbital inclination, longitude of ascending node, mean longitude

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyu-Hong Choi

1990-06-01

Full Text Available The osculating orbital elements include the mean, secular, long period, and short period terms. The iterative algorithm used for conversion of osculating orbital elements to mean orbital elements is described. The mean orbital elements of Wc, Ws, and L are obtained.

Investigating Meaning in Experimental Semiotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberts Gareth

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Experimental semiotics is a new discipline developed over the last decade to study human communication. Studies within this discipline typically involve people creating novel signs by associating signals with meanings. Here we suggest ways this discipline can be used to shed light on how people create and communicate meaning. First we present observations drawn from studies in which participants not only construct novel signals, but also have considerable freedom over what these signals refer to. These studies offer intriguing insight on non-saussurian signs (where a single unit of meaning is associated with different signals, communicative egocentricity, private and public meaning, and the distinction between meaningful and meaningless units in linguistic structure, that is between morphemes and phonemes (or analogous entities. We then present a novel quantitative approach to determining the extent to which a signal unit is meaningful, and illustrate its use with data from a study in which participants construct signals to refer to predetermined meanings. Aside from these specific contributions, we show more generally how challenging investigating meaning in Experimental Semiotics is, but we argue that this reflects the difficulties we must face when studying meaning, outside the lab as well as in it.

Safety and efficacy of eculizumab in anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive refractory generalised myasthenia gravis (REGAIN): a phase 3, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre study.

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, James F; Utsugisawa, Kimiaki; Benatar, Michael; Murai, Hiroyuki; Barohn, Richard J; Illa, Isabel; Jacob, Saiju; Vissing, John; Burns, Ted M; Kissel, John T; Muppidi, Srikanth; Nowak, Richard J; O'Brien, Fanny; Wang, Jing-Jing; Mantegazza, Renato

2017-12-01

Complement is likely to have a role in refractory generalised myasthenia gravis, but no approved therapies specifically target this system. Results from a phase 2 study suggested that eculizumab, a terminal complement inhibitor, produced clinically meaningful improvements in patients with anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive refractory generalised myasthenia gravis. We further assessed the efficacy and safety of eculizumab in this patient population in a phase 3 trial. We did a phase 3, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre study (REGAIN) in 76 hospitals and specialised clinics in 17 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Eligible patients were aged at least 18 years, with a Myasthenia Gravis-Activities of Daily Living (MG-ADL) score of 6 or more, Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) class II-IV disease, vaccination against Neisseria meningitides, and previous treatment with at least two immunosuppressive therapies or one immunosuppressive therapy and chronic intravenous immunoglobulin or plasma exchange for 12 months without symptom control. Patients with a history of thymoma or thymic neoplasms, thymectomy within 12 months before screening, or use of intravenous immunoglobulin or plasma exchange within 4 weeks before randomisation, or rituximab within 6 months before screening, were excluded. We randomly assigned participants (1:1) to either intravenous eculizumab or intravenous matched placebo for 26 weeks. Dosing for eculizumab was 900 mg on day 1 and at weeks 1, 2, and 3; 1200 mg at week 4; and 1200 mg given every second week thereafter as maintenance dosing. Randomisation was done centrally with an interactive voice or web-response system with patients stratified to one of four groups based on MGFA disease classification. Where possible, patients were maintained on existing myasthenia gravis therapies and rescue medication was allowed at the study physician's discretion. Patients, investigators

Intersubjective meaning making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Davidsen, Jacob

of single-touch screen interaction among 8-9 year-old children presented here, shows that while the constraints of single-touch screens does not support equality of interaction at the verbal and the physical level, there seems to be an intersubjective learning outcome. More precisely, the constraints...... of single-touch screens offer support for intersubjective meaning making in its ability of constraining the interaction. By presenting a short embodied interaction analysis of 22 seconds of collaboration, I illustrate how an embodied interaction perspective on intersubjective meaning making can tell...... a different story about touch-screen supported collaborative learning....

L’écriture rouge de Sherman Alexie : l’exemple de "The Sin Eaters"

OpenAIRE

Sabatier, Diane

2005-01-01

If the bodies of Native American individuals seem perpetually tormented and exploited, they constitute means of rebellion when they are transformed into the testimony of a witness – into the body of work of the writer. One can read Sherman Alexie’s collection of short-stories, The Toughest Indian In The World (2001), as scattered bodies regaining shape on paper and forces through his angry red ink. The short-story “The Sin Eaters” constitutes its central nerve with a macabre allegory which li...

German Refugee Policy in the Wake of the Syrian Refugee Crisis

OpenAIRE

Schwarz, Christoph H.

2016-01-01

We become aware of the existence of a right to have rights (and that means to live in a framework where one is judged by one’s actions and opinions) and a right to belong to some kind of organized community, only when millions of people emerge who had lost and could not regain these rights because of the new global political situation.Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism (1951: 296-297) Introduction At the Symposium on Refugee Protection, on June 30, 2014 in Berlin, Germany’s President ...

The role of the addition of ovarian suppression to tamoxifen in young women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer who remain premenopausal or regain menstruation after chemotherapy (ASTRRA): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial and progress

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Hyun-Ah; Ahn, Sei Hyun; Nam, Seok Jin; Park, Seho; Ro, Jungsil

2016-01-01

Ovarian function suppression (OFS) has been shown to be effective as adjuvant endocrine therapy in premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. However, it is currently unclear if addition of OFS to standard tamoxifen therapy after completion of adjuvant chemotherapy results in a survival benefit. In 2008, the Korean Breast Cancer Society Study Group initiated the ASTRRA randomized phase III trial to evaluate the efficacy of OFS in addition to standard tamoxifen treatment in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients who remain or regain premenopausal status after chemotherapy. Premenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer treated with definitive surgery were enrolled after completion of neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Ovarian function was assessed at the time of enrollment and every 6 months for 2 years by follicular-stimulating hormone levels and bleeding history. If ovarian function was confirmed as premenopausal status, the patient was randomized to receive 2 years of goserelin plus 5 years of tamoxifen treatment or 5 years of tamoxifen alone. The primary end point will be the comparison of the 5-year disease-free survival rates between the OFS and tamoxifen alone groups. Patient recruitment was finished on March 2014 with the inclusion of a total of 1483 patients. The interim analysis will be performed at the time of the observation of the 187th event. This study will provide evidence of the benefit of OFS plus tamoxifen compared with tamoxifen only in premenopausal patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer treated with chemotherapy

Differences in muscle activation patterns during step recovery in elderly women with and without a history of falls.

Science.gov (United States)

Ochi, Akira; Yokoyama, Shinya; Abe, Tomokazu; Yamada, Kazumasa; Tateuchi, Hiroshige; Ichihashi, Noriaki

2014-04-01

This study aimed at comparing the patterns of muscle activation used in stepping to regain balance during a forward fall between subjects with and without a history of falling and at identifying the causes of functional deficits in recovery stepping. Elderly women with and without a history of falling (fallers: n = 12, mean age ± SD = 82.8 ± 4.5 years; non-fallers: n = 17, age = 81.4 ± 3.4 years) participated in the study. The subjects were suspended in a forward-leaning position by a lean-control cable with a load of 15 % of body weight and instructed to regain standing balance upon release by taking a single step forward. Electromyography (EMG) data were obtained from five lower extremity muscles on the stepping side, and the muscle activation patterns were compared between fallers and non-fallers. Fallers had a shorter step length and slower step velocity than non-fallers. The EMG time-to-peak for the gastrocnemius muscle, which provides push-off prior to foot lift-off, was slower for fallers than for non-fallers, whereas the EMG onset times of the biceps femoris and gastrocnemius muscles were similar between the groups. The fallers exhibited significantly delayed muscle deactivation of the upper leg and increased co-contraction between the rectus femoris and biceps femoris during the stepping phase than did the non-fallers. These findings suggest that the muscle activation pattern during the regain balance may reflect an inability to step forward rapidly in elderly women with a history of falls.

Do Materialism, Intrinsic Aspirations, and Meaning in Life Predict Students' Meanings of Education?

Science.gov (United States)

Henderson-King, Donna; Mitchell, Amanda M.

2011-01-01

Though there is a deep literature on factors that predict college attendance and on the effects of college attendance on students' development, there has been little research on what education actually means to students themselves. This study was conducted to examine whether materialism, intrinsic aspirations, and the search for meaning in life…

Seismic restraint means for radiation detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Underwood, R.H.; Todt, W.H.

1983-01-01

Seismic restraint means are provided for mounting an elongated, generally cylindrical nuclear radiation detector within a tubular thimble in a nuclear reactor monitor system. The restraint means permits longitudinal movement of the radiation detector into and out of the thimble. Each restraint means comprises a split clamp ring and a plurality of symmetrically spaced support arms pivotally mounted on the clamp ring. Each support arm has spring bias means and thimble contact means eg insulating rollers whereby the contact means engage the thimble with a constant predetermined force which minimizes seismic vibration action on the radiation detector. (author)

Normalization based K means Clustering Algorithm

OpenAIRE

Virmani, Deepali; Taneja, Shweta; Malhotra, Geetika

2015-01-01

K-means is an effective clustering technique used to separate similar data into groups based on initial centroids of clusters. In this paper, Normalization based K-means clustering algorithm(N-K means) is proposed. Proposed N-K means clustering algorithm applies normalization prior to clustering on the available data as well as the proposed approach calculates initial centroids based on weights. Experimental results prove the betterment of proposed N-K means clustering algorithm over existing...

Mean-Field Games for Marriage

Science.gov (United States)

Bauso, Dario; Dia, Ben Mansour; Djehiche, Boualem; Tembine, Hamidou; Tempone, Raul

2014-01-01

This article examines mean-field games for marriage. The results support the argument that optimizing the long-term well-being through effort and social feeling state distribution (mean-field) will help to stabilize marriage. However, if the cost of effort is very high, the couple fluctuates in a bad feeling state or the marriage breaks down. We then examine the influence of society on a couple using mean-field sentimental games. We show that, in mean-field equilibrium, the optimal effort is always higher than the one-shot optimal effort. We illustrate numerically the influence of the couple’s network on their feeling states and their well-being. PMID:24804835

Mean-field games for marriage.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dario Bauso

Full Text Available This article examines mean-field games for marriage. The results support the argument that optimizing the long-term well-being through effort and social feeling state distribution (mean-field will help to stabilize marriage. However, if the cost of effort is very high, the couple fluctuates in a bad feeling state or the marriage breaks down. We then examine the influence of society on a couple using mean-field sentimental games. We show that, in mean-field equilibrium, the optimal effort is always higher than the one-shot optimal effort. We illustrate numerically the influence of the couple's network on their feeling states and their well-being.

Calculation of the mean scattering angle, the logarithmic decrement and its mean square

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bersillon, O.; Caput, B.

1984-06-01

The calculation of the mean scattering angle, the logarithmic decrement and its mean square, starting from the Legendre polynomial expansion coefficients of the relevant elastic scattering angular distribution, is numerically studied with different methods, one of which is proposed for the usual determination of these quantities which are present in the evaluated data files ENDF [fr

Organizational Citizenship Behavior of Islamic Banks through Meaning in Life and Meaning of Work

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heru Sulistyo

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Islamic banking had a market share that is still low if compared with conventional banks,so it has a big challenge to improve the performance and competitive advantage. Employeeswho were willing to have extra work for their organization will lead to the improvementof their performance and their organization. Several studies have examined multiplefactors that affect organizational citizenship behavior (OCB, but it was still slightlystressing on the importance of psychological aspects of meaning in life and meaning ofwork. The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of meaning in life andmeaning of work factors in improving OCB in the organization. The sample in this studywas employees of the Islamic banks in Central Java, amounted to 100 people. The datacollections were conducted by using questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Meanwhile,to analyze the data, the structural equation model with Partial least squares software wasused. The results of data analysis showed that meaning in life had a significant effect onsatisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior. Meaning of work also had a significanteffect on satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior. An employee’sjob satisfaction significantly affects the improvement of organizational citizenship behavior.

Mean-field games for marriage

KAUST Repository

Bauso, Dario

2014-05-07

This article examines mean-field games for marriage. The results support the argument that optimizing the long-term well-being through effort and social feeling state distribution (mean-field) will help to stabilize marriage. However, if the cost of effort is very high, the couple fluctuates in a bad feeling state or the marriage breaks down. We then examine the influence of society on a couple using mean-field sentimental games. We show that, in mean-field equilibrium, the optimal effort is always higher than the one-shot optimal effort. We illustrate numerically the influence of the couple\\'s network on their feeling states and their well-being. © 2014 Bauso et al.

Mean-field games for marriage

KAUST Repository

Bauso, Dario; Dia, Ben Mansour; Djehiche, Boualem; Tembine, Hamidou; Tempone, Raul

2014-01-01

This article examines mean-field games for marriage. The results support the argument that optimizing the long-term well-being through effort and social feeling state distribution (mean-field) will help to stabilize marriage. However, if the cost of effort is very high, the couple fluctuates in a bad feeling state or the marriage breaks down. We then examine the influence of society on a couple using mean-field sentimental games. We show that, in mean-field equilibrium, the optimal effort is always higher than the one-shot optimal effort. We illustrate numerically the influence of the couple's network on their feeling states and their well-being. © 2014 Bauso et al.

Influence of absorbed moisture on surface hydrophobization of ethanol pretreated and plasma treated ramie fibers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Zhou; Wang Jilong; Huang Xiao; Zhang Liwen; Moyo, Senelisile; Sun Shiyuan; Qiu Yiping

2012-01-01

The existence of moisture in the substrate material may influence the effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. Our previous study has found that the employment of ethanol pretreatment and plasma treatment can effectively induce hydrophobic surface modification of cellulose fiber to enhance the compatibility to polypropylene (PP) matrix, and this study aims to investigate the influence of fiber moisture regain on the treatment effect of this technique. Ramie fibers with three different moisture regains (MR) (2.5, 6.1 and 23.5%) are pretreated with ethanol followed by atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) shows that the 2.5% MR group has the most significant plasma etching effect. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates an increase of C-C and a decrease of C-O bond in the plasma treated groups, and the largest raise of C-C bond for the 2.5% MR group. The water contact angles of the 2.5 and 6.1% MR groups increase, whereas no significant change is showed in the 23.5% MR group. The interfacial shear strengths (IFSS) measured by microbond pull-out test are raised by 44 and 25% when moisture regains are 2.5 and 6.1%, while presented no apparent improvement at high moisture regain of 23.5%. Therefore, it can be concluded that moisture regain has negative influence on the surface hydrophobization of ramie fibers in the improvement of adhesion property to PP matrix.

Influence of absorbed moisture on surface hydrophobization of ethanol pretreated and plasma treated ramie fibers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhou Zhou; Wang Jilong; Huang Xiao; Zhang Liwen; Moyo, Senelisile; Sun Shiyuan [Key Laboratory of Textile Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620 (China); Qiu Yiping, E-mail: ypqiu@dhu.edu.cn [Key Laboratory of Textile Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620 (China)

2012-03-01

The existence of moisture in the substrate material may influence the effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. Our previous study has found that the employment of ethanol pretreatment and plasma treatment can effectively induce hydrophobic surface modification of cellulose fiber to enhance the compatibility to polypropylene (PP) matrix, and this study aims to investigate the influence of fiber moisture regain on the treatment effect of this technique. Ramie fibers with three different moisture regains (MR) (2.5, 6.1 and 23.5%) are pretreated with ethanol followed by atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) shows that the 2.5% MR group has the most significant plasma etching effect. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates an increase of C-C and a decrease of C-O bond in the plasma treated groups, and the largest raise of C-C bond for the 2.5% MR group. The water contact angles of the 2.5 and 6.1% MR groups increase, whereas no significant change is showed in the 23.5% MR group. The interfacial shear strengths (IFSS) measured by microbond pull-out test are raised by 44 and 25% when moisture regains are 2.5 and 6.1%, while presented no apparent improvement at high moisture regain of 23.5%. Therefore, it can be concluded that moisture regain has negative influence on the surface hydrophobization of ramie fibers in the improvement of adhesion property to PP matrix.

Extended Deterministic Mean-Field Games

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.

2016-04-21

In this paper, we consider mean-field games where the interaction of each player with the mean field takes into account not only the states of the players but also their collective behavior. To do so, we develop a random variable framework that is particularly convenient for these problems. We prove an existence result for extended mean-field games and establish uniqueness conditions. In the last section, we consider the Master Equation and discuss properties of its solutions.

Extended Deterministic Mean-Field Games

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.; Voskanyan, Vardan K.

2016-01-01

In this paper, we consider mean-field games where the interaction of each player with the mean field takes into account not only the states of the players but also their collective behavior. To do so, we develop a random variable framework that is particularly convenient for these problems. We prove an existence result for extended mean-field games and establish uniqueness conditions. In the last section, we consider the Master Equation and discuss properties of its solutions.

Discussing Firearm Ownership and Access as Part of Suicide Risk Assessment and Prevention: "Means Safety" versus "Means Restriction".

Science.gov (United States)

Stanley, Ian H; Hom, Melanie A; Rogers, Megan L; Anestis, Michael D; Joiner, Thomas E

2017-01-01

The goal of this study was to describe the relative utility of the terms "means safety" versus "means restriction" in counseling individuals to limit their access to firearms in the context of a mock suicide risk assessment. Overall, 370 participants were randomized to read a vignette depicting a clinical scenario in which managing firearm ownership and access was discussed either using the term "means safety" or "means restriction." Participants rated the term "means safety" as significantly more acceptable and preferable than "means restriction." Participants randomized to the "means safety" condition reported greater intentions to adhere to clinicians' recommendations to limit access to a firearm for safety purposes (F[1,367] = 7.393, p = .007, [Formula: see text]). The term "means safety" may be more advantageous than "means restriction" when discussing firearm ownership and access in clinical settings and public health-oriented suicide prevention efforts.

Mean platelet volume and mean platelet volume/platelet count ratio

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Amira M. Elsayed

2016-03-30

Mar 30, 2016 ... The aim of this study was to compare the MPV and mean platelet volume/platelet count ... brain stroke, both in the acute phase and long after disease.17 ... males, while the healthy controls comprised 12 females and 8.

Bochner-Riesz means on Euclidean spaces

CERN Document Server

Lu, Shanzhen

2013-01-01

This book mainly deals with the Bochner-Riesz means of multiple Fourier integral and series on Euclidean spaces. It aims to give a systematical introduction to the fundamental theories of the Bochner-Riesz means and important achievements attained in the last 50 years. For the Bochner-Riesz means of multiple Fourier integral, it includes the Fefferman theorem which negates the Disc multiplier conjecture, the famous Carleson-Sjölin theorem, and Carbery-Rubio de Francia-Vega's work on almost everywhere convergence of the Bochner-Riesz means below the critical index. For the Bochner-Riesz means o

Mean excitation energies for molecular ions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jensen, Phillip W.K.; Sauer, Stephan P.A. [Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen (Denmark); Oddershede, Jens [Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, Odense (Denmark); Quantum Theory Project, Departments of Physics and Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States); Sabin, John R., E-mail: sabin@qtp.ufl.edu [Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, Odense (Denmark); Quantum Theory Project, Departments of Physics and Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)

2017-03-01

The essential material constant that determines the bulk of the stopping power of high energy projectiles, the mean excitation energy, is calculated for a range of smaller molecular ions using the RPA method. It is demonstrated that the mean excitation energy of both molecules and atoms increase with ionic charge. However, while the mean excitation energies of atoms also increase with atomic number, the opposite is the case for mean excitation energies for molecules and molecular ions. The origin of these effects is explained by considering the spectral representation of the excited state contributing to the mean excitation energy.

Life time income of men and women

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonke, Jens

1992-01-01

Life-time income is estimated here including the money value of household work. A modified opportunity principle is used, which means that non-employed women's price of time is found by calculating reservation wage rates. The overall results demonstrate that Danish women's ‘loss' of labour income...... during the child caring period is difficult for them to regain, and just to reach the same level of income as childless Danish women seems impossible; furthermore Danish men get a higher life-time income than Danish women even when we add the money value of household work...

Time independent mean-field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Negele, J.W.

1980-02-01

The physical and theoretical motivations for the time-dependent mean-field theory are presented, and the successes and limitations of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock initial-vaue problem are reviewed. New theoretical developments are described in the treatment of two-body correlations and the formulation of a quantum mean-field theory of large-amplitude collective motion and tunneling decay. Finally, the mean-field theory is used to obtain new insights into the phenomenon of pion condensation in finite nuclei. 18 figures

Forecasting Error Calculation with Mean Absolute Deviation and Mean Absolute Percentage Error

Science.gov (United States)

Khair, Ummul; Fahmi, Hasanul; Hakim, Sarudin Al; Rahim, Robbi

2017-12-01

Prediction using a forecasting method is one of the most important things for an organization, the selection of appropriate forecasting methods is also important but the percentage error of a method is more important in order for decision makers to adopt the right culture, the use of the Mean Absolute Deviation and Mean Absolute Percentage Error to calculate the percentage of mistakes in the least square method resulted in a percentage of 9.77% and it was decided that the least square method be worked for time series and trend data.

Spirituality in narratives of meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francois Wessels

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This article forms part of a study which was inspired by the ever-growing need for significance expressed both by my life coaching and pastoral therapy clients as well as the need for existential meaning reported both in the lay press and academic literature. The study reflected on a life that matters with a group of co-researchers in a participatory action research relationship. The study has been positioned within pastoral theology and invited the theological discourse into a reflection of existential meaning. Adopting a critical relational constructionist epistemology, the research was positioned within a postmodern paradigm. The implications for meaning and research were explored and described. This article tells the story of how spirituality was positioned in the narratives of meaning by my fellow researchers.

MBOK: ITS DISTRIBUTION, MEANING, AND FUNCTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ajar Pradika A. Tur

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Mbok, in Javanese language, has not only a ’mother’ in meaning. As a lexicon in the language, mbok in one side truly means a ‘mother’ and still has the same meaning although it experiences the morphological process to be, at least, embok, simbok, or mboke. The variations exist and are spoken by Javanese native speakers throughout the Javanese dialects such as Suroboyoan, Solo, Yogyakarta, Bagelen, and Banyumasan dialects spread from the East Java, Yogyakarta, and Central Java. However, mbok, as a particle has different meaning, even different various meanings relying on its distribution in a sentence. Then the meanings bear its different various functions as well in the sentence based on the context of the sentence (grammatical-semantics meaning. Through Teknik Balik (Converse Technique the data gained was analyzed to distinguish the position of the particle in the sentence in order to reach its significant different meanings and functions. At least, from the analysis, we have three positions of mbok in the sentences, that are in the initial, middle, and the end of the sentences. These positions affect the meanings and functions that can be seen as follows; ‘, is not it?’ (Tag Question and ‘is/are” (Verbal Question for emphasizing, ‘please’ for requesting a help, ‘may be’ and ‘in case’ for expressing possibility, and ‘causing’ for expressing cause-effect. Keywords: mbok, semantics, Banyumasan dialect

Synchronicity and the meaning-making psyche.

Science.gov (United States)

Colman, Warren

2011-09-01

This paper contrasts Jung's account of synchronicity as evidence of an objective principle of meaning in Nature with a view that emphasizes human meaning-making. All synchronicities generate indicative signs but only where this becomes a 'living symbol' of a transcendent intentionality at work in a living universe does synchronicity generate the kind of symbolic meaning that led Jung to posit the existence of a Universal Mind. This is regarded as a form of personal, experiential knowledge belonging to the 'imaginal world of meaning' characteristic of the 'primordial mind', as opposed to the 'rational world of knowledge' in which Jung attempted to present his experiences as if they were empirically and publicly verifiable. Whereas rational knowledge depends on a form of meaning in which causal chains and logical links are paramount, imaginal meaning is generated by forms of congruent correspondence-a feature that synchronicity shares with metaphor and symbol-and the creation of narratives by means of retroactive organization of its constituent elements. © 2011, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

Soils - Mean Permeability

Data.gov (United States)

Kansas Data Access and Support Center — This digital spatial data set provides information on the magnitude and spatial pattern of depth-weighted, mean soil permeability throughout the State of Kansas. The...

Meaning making and psychological adjustment following cancer: the mediating roles of growth, life meaning, and restored just-world beliefs.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Crystal L; Edmondson, Donald; Fenster, Juliane R; Blank, Thomas O

2008-10-01

Cancer survivors' efforts at meaning making may influence the extent to which they successfully make meaning from their experience (i.e., experience posttraumatic growth, find life meaningful, and restore beliefs in a just world), which may, in turn, influence their psychological adjustment. Previous research regarding both meaning making processes and meanings made as determinants of adjustment has shown inconsistent effects, partly because of the lack of clearly articulated theoretical frameworks and problematic research strategies. In a 1-year longitudinal study, the authors distinguished the meaning making process from the outcomes of that process (meanings made), employing specific measures of both. The authors tested pathways through which meaning making efforts led to 3 different meanings made (growth, life meaning, and restored just-world belief) in a sample of 172 young to middle-age adult cancer survivors, and they explored whether those meanings made mediated the effect of meaning making efforts on psychological adjustment. Cross-sectional and longitudinal path models of the meaning making process indicate that meaning making efforts are related to better adjustment through the successful creation of adaptive meanings made from the cancer experience. The authors conclude with clinical implications and suggestions for future research. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

Prediction based on mean subset

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Øjelund, Henrik; Brown, P. J.; Madsen, Henrik

2002-01-01

, it is found that the proposed mean subset method has superior prediction performance than prediction based on the best subset method, and in some settings also better than the ridge regression and lasso methods. The conclusions drawn from the Monte Carlo study is corroborated in an example in which prediction......Shrinkage methods have traditionally been applied in prediction problems. In this article we develop a shrinkage method (mean subset) that forms an average of regression coefficients from individual subsets of the explanatory variables. A Bayesian approach is taken to derive an expression of how...... the coefficient vectors from each subset should be weighted. It is not computationally feasible to calculate the mean subset coefficient vector for larger problems, and thus we suggest an algorithm to find an approximation to the mean subset coefficient vector. In a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation study...

Perfluoroalkyl substances and changes in body weight and resting metabolic rate in response to weight-loss diets: A prospective study

Science.gov (United States)

Furtado, Jeremy D.; Liang, Liming; Qi, Lu; Bray, George A.; DeJonge, Lilian; Coull, Brent

2018-01-01

Background The potential endocrine-disrupting effects of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been demonstrated in animal studies, but whether PFASs may interfere with body weight regulation in humans is largely unknown. This study aimed to examine the associations of PFAS exposure with changes in body weight and resting metabolic rate (RMR) in a diet-induced weight-loss setting. Methods and findings In the 2-year POUNDS Lost randomized clinical trial based in Boston, Massachusetts, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that examined the effects of energy-restricted diets on weight changes, baseline plasma concentrations of major PFASs were measured among 621 overweight and obese participants aged 30–70 years. Body weight was measured at baseline and 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. RMR and other metabolic parameters, including glucose, lipids, thyroid hormones, and leptin, were measured at baseline and 6 and 24 months. Participants lost an average of 6.4 kg of body weight during the first 6 months (weight-loss period) and subsequently regained an average of 2.7 kg of body weight during the period of 6–24 months (weight regain period). After multivariate adjustment, baseline PFAS concentrations were not significantly associated with concurrent body weight or weight loss during the first 6 months. In contrast, higher baseline levels of PFASs were significantly associated with a greater weight regain, primarily in women. In women, comparing the highest to the lowest tertiles of PFAS concentrations, the multivariate-adjusted mean weight regain (SE) was 4.0 (0.8) versus 2.1 (0.9) kg for perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) (Ptrend = 0.01); 4.3 (0.9) versus 2.2 (0.8) kg for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) (Ptrend = 0.007); 4.7 (0.9) versus 2.5 (0.9) kg for perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) (Ptrend = 0.006); 4.9 (0.9) versus 2.7 (0.8) kg for perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) (Ptrend = 0.009); and 4.2 (0.8) versus 2.5 (0.9) kg for perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) (Ptrend = 0.03). When

Outplayed: Regaining Strategic Initiative in the Gray Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2016-06-01

and the Great Depression . The period between 1917 and 1945 included two world wars and the Great Depres- sion. There was not a great deal of gray...2015, Center for Strategic and International Studies YouTube Channel video file, avail- able from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WA1rP5WGfY

Strategies for Revitalizing Organizations: Regaining the Competitive Edge

Science.gov (United States)

Nysmith, C. Robert

1987-01-01

During the last decade, the United States has lost competitive stature in the world. Challenged daily by a technically sophisticated and vitalized global economy, industry and Government are examining quality and productivity initiatives with which to meet the foreign competitive challenge. At stake are our quality of life and our standard of living for the remainder of this century and beyond. Being competitive is an ongoing process, tuned to an awareness and understanding of the dynamics of the world marketplace and to the changing nature of the work environment. Solutions to America's quality and productivity problems do not exist independently within any organization or industry or at any given level of society. Success depends on commitment, partnership, meshing of goals and responsibilities, mutual respect and understanding, and a desire to be first. A change in organizational management culture is required. Traditional authoritarian management practices must give way to enlightened leadership initiatives that stress employee involvement and participation. There must be a lessening of adversarial relationships between management and labor and between industry and Government. Quality and productivity are understood to be the end result of an integrated process which begins with vigorous, committed leadership and ends with a satisfied customer. The essential elements in the revitalization process are organized in this report into seven strategies which represent the major findings of the Second NASA Symposium on Quality and Productivity. Each strategy is then broken down into its principal themes which are presented as recommendations. No one strategy can stand apart from any other; all are interrelated and work together.

Comparative Performance Of Using PCA With K-Means And Fuzzy C Means Clustering For Customer Segmentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fahmida Afrin

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Data mining is the process of analyzing data and discovering useful information. Sometimes it is called knowledge Discovery. Clustering refers to groups whereas data are grouped in such a way that the data in one cluster are similar data in different clusters are dissimilar. Many data mining technologies are developed for customer segmentation. PCA is working as a preprocessor of Fuzzy C means and K- means for reducing the high dimensional and noisy data. There are many clustering method apply on customer segmentation. In this paper the performance of Fuzzy C means and K-means after implementing Principal Component Analysis is analyzed. We analyze the performance on a standard dataset for these algorithms. The results indicate that PCA based fuzzy clustering produces better results than PCA based K-means and is a more stable method for customer segmentation.

k-Means: Random Sampling Procedure

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics. k-Means: Random Sampling Procedure. Optimal 1-Mean is. Approximation of Centroid (Inaba et al). S = random sample of size O(1/ ); Centroid of S is a (1+ )-approx centroid of P with constant probability.

Bronze-mean hexagonal quasicrystal

Science.gov (United States)

Dotera, Tomonari; Bekku, Shinichi; Ziherl, Primož

2017-10-01

The most striking feature of conventional quasicrystals is their non-traditional symmetry characterized by icosahedral, dodecagonal, decagonal or octagonal axes. The symmetry and the aperiodicity of these materials stem from an irrational ratio of two or more length scales controlling their structure, the best-known examples being the Penrose and the Ammann-Beenker tiling as two-dimensional models related to the golden and the silver mean, respectively. Surprisingly, no other metallic-mean tilings have been discovered so far. Here we propose a self-similar bronze-mean hexagonal pattern, which may be viewed as a projection of a higher-dimensional periodic lattice with a Koch-like snowflake projection window. We use numerical simulations to demonstrate that a disordered variant of this quasicrystal can be materialized in soft polymeric colloidal particles with a core-shell architecture. Moreover, by varying the geometry of the pattern we generate a continuous sequence of structures, which provide an alternative interpretation of quasicrystalline approximants observed in several metal-silicon alloys.

The complexity of self-regulating food intake in weight loss maintenance. A qualitative study among short- and long-term weight loss maintainers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Susanne; Sniethotta, Falko F.; Sainsbury, Kirby

2018-01-01

Rationale Whether self-regulation of food intake in weight loss maintenance (WLM) differs between being a short-term maintainer (having maintained without regaining less than 12 months) and a long-term maintainer (having maintained without regaining at least 12 months) is under-researched. Object......Rationale Whether self-regulation of food intake in weight loss maintenance (WLM) differs between being a short-term maintainer (having maintained without regaining less than 12 months) and a long-term maintainer (having maintained without regaining at least 12 months) is under......-researched. Objective The aim of this study was to explore the self-regulatory strategies and self-efficacy beliefs applied by short- and long-term maintainers to the complex set of behaviours comprising food intake in WLM, and to obtain a better understanding of their challenges in the various food-intake processes...... in WLM. Method Individual interviews (14 female/4 male) were conducted with nine Danish short- and nine long-term weight loss maintainers. The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) was applied post-hoc to organise data and support analyses, since the approach focuses on both the cognitions (e.g., self...

Mean-field magnetohydrodynamics and dynamo theory

CERN Document Server

Krause, F

2013-01-01

Mean-Field Magnetohydrodynamics and Dynamo Theory provides a systematic introduction to mean-field magnetohydrodynamics and the dynamo theory, along with the results achieved. Topics covered include turbulence and large-scale structures; general properties of the turbulent electromotive force; homogeneity, isotropy, and mirror symmetry of turbulent fields; and turbulent electromotive force in the case of non-vanishing mean flow. The turbulent electromotive force in the case of rotational mean motion is also considered. This book is comprised of 17 chapters and opens with an overview of the gen

The Two Meanings of Economic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karl Polanyi

2012-07-01

Full Text Available In this text Karl Polanyi explains the two meanings of economic: the formal, which springs from the logical character of the means-ends relationship, and from which springs the scarcity definition of economic, and the substantive meaning, which points to the elemental fact that human beings, like all other living things, cannot exist for any length of time without a physical environment that sustains them. The two meanings, the formal and the substantive, have nothing in common. According to the author how solidly the two meanings were joined can be inferred from the ironic fate of the most controversial of modern mythological figures – economic man. Nel testo Karl Polanyi illustra i due significati di economico: il significato formale, che deriva dalla natura logica della relazione mezzi-fini e da cui discende la definizione di economico basata sulla scarsità, e il significato sostanziale, che rinvia al fatto che gli esseri umani, come tutti gli esseri viventi, non possono mantenersi in vita senza un ambiente materiale che li sostenga. I due significati non hanno nulla in comune. Secondo l’autore la solidità della congiunzione dei due termini si può capire dalla sorte ironica della più controversa fra le figure mitologiche moderne: l’uomo economico.

Computing meaning v.4

CERN Document Server

Bunt, Harry; Pulman, Stephen

2013-01-01

This book is a collection of papers by leading researchers in computational semantics. It presents a state-of-the-art overview of recent and current research in computational semantics, including descriptions of new methods for constructing and improving resources for semantic computation, such as WordNet, VerbNet, and semantically annotated corpora. It also presents new statistical methods in semantic computation, such as the application of distributional semantics in the compositional calculation of sentence meanings. Computing the meaning of sentences, texts, and spoken or texted dialogue i

A remark about the mean curvature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Weitao.

1992-11-01

In this paper, we give an integral identity about the mean curvature in Sobolev space H 0 1 (Ω) intersection H 2 (Ω). Suppose the mean curvature on Γ=δΩ is positive, we prove some inequalities of the positive mean curvature and propose some open problems. (author). 4 refs

Distributed k-Means Algorithm and Fuzzy c-Means Algorithm for Sensor Networks Based on Multiagent Consensus Theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Jiahu; Fu, Weiming; Gao, Huijun; Zheng, Wei Xing

2016-03-03

This paper is concerned with developing a distributed k-means algorithm and a distributed fuzzy c-means algorithm for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) where each node is equipped with sensors. The underlying topology of the WSN is supposed to be strongly connected. The consensus algorithm in multiagent consensus theory is utilized to exchange the measurement information of the sensors in WSN. To obtain a faster convergence speed as well as a higher possibility of having the global optimum, a distributed k-means++ algorithm is first proposed to find the initial centroids before executing the distributed k-means algorithm and the distributed fuzzy c-means algorithm. The proposed distributed k-means algorithm is capable of partitioning the data observed by the nodes into measure-dependent groups which have small in-group and large out-group distances, while the proposed distributed fuzzy c-means algorithm is capable of partitioning the data observed by the nodes into different measure-dependent groups with degrees of membership values ranging from 0 to 1. Simulation results show that the proposed distributed algorithms can achieve almost the same results as that given by the centralized clustering algorithms.

Mean intraocular pressure in hypertensive adults

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Irum, S.; Malik, A.M.; Saeed, M.

2015-01-01

To determine the mean Intraocular Pressure (IOP) in already diagnosed adult hypertensive patients with different grades of hypertension. Study Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Combined Military Hospital, Lahore, from March 2012 to Aug 2012. Patients and Methods: A total of 178 already diagnosed hypertensive patients were selected. A detailed history of ocular or systemic diseases was taken. Intraocular pressure was measured with help of Goldmann applanation tonometer. Three consecutive readings of IOP of each eye were taken at 30 minutes interval and mean calculated. Blood pressure was recorded in seated position from right upper arm, by mercury sphygmomanometer. Blood pressure measurements were determined by taking the mean value of three systolic and diastolic readings. Results: The results of intraocular pressure (IOP) between various grades of hypertension were determined. There was an increase in mean IOP with rise in blood pressure. The subjects with grade I hypertension showed a mean IOP of 13.95 ± 3.74 mmHg, while grade II and grade III hypertensive subjects had mean IOPs as 18.10 ± 3.32 and 20.21 ± 2.52 mmHg respectively. Conclusion: A higher value of mean IOP was found with increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressures. (author)

An Optimal Double Inequality for Means

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qian Wei-Mao

2010-01-01

Full Text Available For , the generalized logarithmic mean , arithmetic mean and geometric mean of two positive numbers and are defined by , ; , , , ; , , ; , , ; and , respectively. In this paper, we give an answer to the open problem: for , what are the greatest value and the least value , such that the double inequality holds for all ?

Outcomes following 50 consecutive endoscopic gastrojejunal revisions for weight gain following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: a comparison of endoscopic suturing techniques for stoma reduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Lava Y; Lapin, Brittany; Brown, Craig S; Stringer, Thomas; Gitelis, Matthew E; Linn, John G; Denham, Woody E; Farwell, Elizabeth; Haggerty, Stephen; Ujiki, Michael B

2017-06-01

Approximately 20-30 % of morbidly obese patients undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) will experience significant weight regain in the years following surgery. Endoscopic gastrojejunal revision (EGJR) has been shown to be a safe, effective and less invasive alternative to revisional surgery, with promising weight loss outcomes. However, minimal data exist regarding how to perform the procedure most effectively and what factors may predict good outcomes. We compared weight loss outcomes between patients undergoing endoscopic stoma revision by one of two full-thickness suturing techniques. A retrospective review of patients undergoing EGJR between 06/2012 and 09/2015 was performed. Included patients were adults 18-74 years of age who had experienced weight regain ≥2 years after initial RYGB with stoma dilation ≥15 mm in diameter. Revision was done with either an interrupted (IRT) or purse-string (PST) suture technique. A linear mixed effects model was constructed to predict postoperative weight loss. Fifty revisions (IRT = 36, PST = 14) were performed in 47 patients (92 % female, mean age of 50.9 ± 10.9 years and body mass index of 41.4 ± 7.1 kg/m 2 ). Technical success (stoma diameter ≤10 mm) was achieved in all cases. Final diameter was significantly smaller in the PST group, 6.6 ± 2.2 mm versus 4.8 ± 1.8 mm (p weight loss over time compared to IRT. Sixteen comorbid conditions resolved among 12 patients. No major complications occurred. Endoscopic revision of the gastric outlet results in meaningful weight loss and comorbidity resolution in select patients experiencing weight regain following RYGB. A PST revision likely results in higher and more sustainable weight loss when compared to IRT.

Behavioural Effects of the Commonly Used Fish Anaesthetic Tricaine Methanesulfonate (MS-222) on Zebrafish (Danio rerio) and Its Relevance for the Acetic Acid Pain Test

Science.gov (United States)

Nordgreen, Janicke; Tahamtani, Fernanda M.; Janczak, Andrew M.; Horsberg, Tor Einar

2014-01-01

The pros and cons of using anaesthesia when handling fish in connection with experiments are debated. A widely adopted practice is to wait thirty minutes after anaesthesia before behavioural observations are initiated, but information about immediate effects of a treatment is then lost. This is pertinent for responses to acute stressors, such as acid injection in the acetic acid pain test. However, omission of anaesthetics in order to obtain data on immediate responses will compromise the welfare of fish and contribute to experimental noise due to stress. We therefore tested the effect of tricaine methanesulfonate on the behaviour of zebrafish. We predicted that tricaine (MS 222) would decrease swimming velocity and that the control fish would show an increased level of anxiety- and stress-related behaviours compared to the tricaine group. Following acclimatization to the test tank, baseline behaviour was recorded before immersion in either tricaine (168 mg l−1, treatment group, N = 8) or tank water (control group, N = 7). Latencies to lose equilibrium and to lose response to touch were registered. The fish was then returned to the test tank, and the latency to regain equilibrium was registered in anaesthetized fish. When equilibrium was regained, and at five, thirty and sixty minutes after the fish had been returned to the test tank, behaviour was recorded. The tricaine fish showed the following responses (mean ± sd): latency to lose equilibrium 22.6 s±3.9; latency to lose response to touch 101.9 s±26.8; latency to regain equilibrium 92.0 s±54.4. Contrary to our predictions, neither treatment caused a change in any of the behaviours registered. This indicates that tricaine has no effect on several commonly used behavioural parameters, and that it may be unnecessary to postpone behavioural observations to 30 min after anaesthesia. PMID:24658262

Mean nuclear volume

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mogensen, O.; Sørensen, Flemming Brandt; Bichel, P.

1999-01-01

We evaluated the following nine parameters with respect to their prognostic value in females with endometrial cancer: four stereologic parameters [mean nuclear volume (MNV), nuclear volume fraction, nuclear index and mitotic index], the immunohistochemical expression of cancer antigen (CA125...

MEAN STACK WEB DEVELOPMENT

OpenAIRE

Le Thanh, Nghi

2017-01-01

The aim of the thesis is to provide a universal website using JavaScript as the main programming language. It also shows the basic parts anyone need to create a web application. The thesis creates a simple CMS using MEAN stack. MEAN is a collection of JavaScript based technologies used to develop web application. It is an acronym for MongoDB, Express, AngularJS and Node.js. It also allows non-technical users to easily update and manage a website’s content. But the application also lets o...

Patientdeltagelse under rehabilitering efter en rygmarvsskade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Angel, Sanne

2010-01-01

insight into patient participation. The ability and need for participation changed through the six-phased process of regaining meaning after a spinal cord injury; no will to participate, developing/generating strength to participate, need for participation and will to participate in decision......This paper investigates the patient's ability and need for participation during rehabilitation. The application of Ricoeur's phenomenological-hermeneutic interpretation theory with a narrative approach revealed that the rehabilitation process of 12 persons was successful in providing specific......-making. Concurrently, the existential meaning of patient participation was uncovered. The conclusion was that the professional's hard work of stimulating the patient to participate and then permit the patient to take part was decisive in relation to the patient's existence and recovery....

Aphasics' defective perception of connotative meaning of verbal items which have no denotative meaning.

Science.gov (United States)

Ammon, K H; Moerman, C; Guleac, J D

1977-12-01

This study deals with the question of whether in aphasic patients the grasping of connotative meaning is disturbed. The method used was the "maluma - takete" type (Koehler, 1947): matching of synthetic words to meaningless figures. It was proven that asphasics from different countries with different languages have a disturbed perception of connotative meaning. There was a correlation with the severity of language comprehension disturbance in aphasics.

Paradise regained: older adult rock climbers turning space into place in the natural environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Hickman

2015-12-01

Full Text Available At the time of writing there are over 10 million people aged over 65 living in the UK, and by 2050 the number is predicted to rise to 19 million. This expansion of the ageing population is mirrored worldwide, and over the past ten years has stimulated a growth in age-related studies. However, the idea of a social gerontology of the outdoors is yet to take root. Yet, with the maturing of those born between the years 1946 and 1964, and increased participation in adventurous activities, we suggest that the time is right for scholarship in this specific direction. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to discover how older adult rock climbers perceived their relationship with the natural environment to have changed over the period of their involvement with rock climbing. The investigation used a purposive sample of rock climbers in the north-west of England (n=10 aged between 65 and 74 years (av=69.6 identifying them as ‘young-old’ adults. Oral testimony was collected over two phases, the first with interview-questionnaires, and the second with targeted semi-structured interviews. In order to give a clear voice to participants, manual data handling using was used to establish raw data that were then sorted into themes and verified against internal and external checkers. These were then organized around Peace, Wahl, Mollenkopf and Oswald’s (2014 concept of an ‘environment’ considered within three dimensions: the physical/material, including the natural landscape; the psychological, and the meaning attributed to the place, its evolution across the life course, and how it makes people feel about themselves; and the social/cultural, involving the engagement of people to places, including how the space is used and remembered.

Catalytic effects by thioltransferase on the transfer of methylmercury and p-mercuribenzoate from macromolecules to low molecular weight thiol compounds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eriksson, S.; Svenson, A.

1978-01-01

Thiol agarose and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were blocked with methylmercury or p-mercuribenzoate. The exchange of mercurials between the thiol-containing polymers and glutathione or dithioerythritol was investigated. The activity of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase was inhibited by blocking thiol-groups with the mercury compounds. Inhibition was reversible when a short period of inactivation was used. Inactivation for longer periods resulted in reduced regain of enzyme activity. The activity was in part regained when either of the 2 thiol compounds was added. Thioltransferase, known to catalyze thiol-disulfide exchange reactions, increased the regain of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase activity to nearly the original value. Here, thioltransferase is proposed to catalyze the transfer of organomercurial from one thiol complex to another. Some consequences of the observations in vivo are discussed.

Meaning

Science.gov (United States)

Harteveld, Casper

The second world to be considered concerns Meaning. In contrast to Reality and Play, this world relates to the people, disciplines, and domains that are focused on creating a certain value. For example, if this value is about providing students knowledge about physics, it involves teachers, the learning sciences, and the domains education and physics. This level goes into the aspects and criteria that designers need to take into account from this perspective. The first aspect seems obvious when we talk of “games with a serious purpose.” They have a purpose and this needs to be elaborated on, for example in terms of what “learning objectives” it attempts to achieve. The subsequent aspect is not about what is being pursued but how. To attain a value, designers have to think about a strategy that they employ. In my case this concerned looking at the learning paradigms that have come into existence in the past century and see what they have to tell us about learning. This way, their principles can be translated into a game environment. This translation involves making the strategy concrete. Or, in other words, operationalizing the plan. This is the third aspect. In this level, I will further specifically explain how I derived requirements from each of the learning paradigms, like reflection and exploration, and how they can possibly be related to games. The fourth and final aspect is the context in which the game is going to be used. It matters who uses the game and when, where, and how the game is going to be used. When designers have looked at these aspects, they have developed a “value proposal” and the worth of it may be judged by criteria, like motivation, relevance, and transfer. But before I get to this, I first go into how we human beings are meaning creators and what role assumptions, knowledge, and ambiguity have in this. I will illustrate this with some silly jokes about doctors and Mickey Mouse, and with an illusion.

Context as a modifier of phraseological meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Vladimirovna Harlamova

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the problems of actualization of phraseological units in the context of the French youth press. Due to the development of the connotative component of the meaning, phraseological units, as expressive means of the language, are often used in the process of communication to influence the addressee. The phraseological units with positive or negative estimation, expressing emotionally-evaluative attitude of the speaker towards the subject, influence the creation of the pragmatic direction of the utterance. Effected by the context, some changes take place within the structure of phraseological meaning. As the result the pragmatic direction of the text is increased. When a cliché is included into the context, the virtual (pragmatic meaning is substituted by the actual (syntagmatic meaning. Here, two variants of interaction of these meanings are possible. In the first case, the paradigmatic meaning and the syntagmatic meaning can coincide (thus, the phraseological unit is presented in its casual meaning. In the latter case, the meaning of the cliché can be transformed under the influence of the context. It often leads to the divergence between paradigmatic and syntagmatic meanings. Thus, connotative-pragmatic characteristics of any phraseological unit can be defined by the context and it leads to : a a cliché, losing its situational-evaluative feature (influenced by the context, the situational feature disappears and the cliché gets a positive or negative evaluation; b the transition of the cliché to the "oppositely charged" field (phraseological units with negative connotation get positive connotation and vice versa; c the intensification of phraseological meaning. The analyzed examples, proving the influence of the context on phraseological meaning, were taken from various French youth journals. (Okapi, le Monde des ados, Geo ado, Phosphore, Etudiant, Science & Vie Junior, Planète Jeunes.

Mean Transit Time and Mean Residence Time for Linear Diffusion–Convection–Reaction Transport System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacek Waniewski

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Characteristic times for transport processes in biological systems may be evaluated as mean transit times (MTTs (for transit states or mean residence times (MRT (for steady states. It is shown in a general framework of a (linear reaction–diffusion–convection equation that these two times are related. Analytical formulas are also derived to calculate moments of exit time distribution using solutions for a stationary state of the system.

Mean-Reverting Portfolio With Budget Constraint

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Ziping; Palomar, Daniel P.

2018-05-01

This paper considers the mean-reverting portfolio design problem arising from statistical arbitrage in the financial markets. We first propose a general problem formulation aimed at finding a portfolio of underlying component assets by optimizing a mean-reversion criterion characterizing the mean-reversion strength, taking into consideration the variance of the portfolio and an investment budget constraint. Then several specific problems are considered based on the general formulation, and efficient algorithms are proposed. Numerical results on both synthetic and market data show that our proposed mean-reverting portfolio design methods can generate consistent profits and outperform the traditional design methods and the benchmark methods in the literature.

The Mean as Balance Point

Science.gov (United States)

O'Dell, Robin S.

2012-01-01

There are two primary interpretations of the mean: as a leveler of data (Uccellini 1996, pp. 113-114) and as a balance point of a data set. Typically, both interpretations of the mean are ignored in elementary school and middle school curricula. They are replaced with a rote emphasis on calculation using the standard algorithm. When students are…

Meaningful Commitment: Finding Meaning in Volunteer Work

Science.gov (United States)

Schnell, Tatjana; Hoof, Matthias

2012-01-01

This study tests the hypothesis that volunteer work is associated with various aspects of meaning making by employing a multi-dimensional model of meaning operationalized by the "Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire" ("SoMe"). An empirical study comparing 168 volunteers with a representative sample of the general population (N =…

Reproducibility of mean nuclear volume and correlation with mean nuclear area in breast cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baak, J P; Ladekarl, M; Sørensen, Flemming Brandt

1994-01-01

reproducible and strongly correlated with nuclear vv assessed in the TOTAL. In invasive breast cancer assessments in the whole tumor section can be used if delineation of the measurement area cannot be done easily. In small areas with a limited number of nuclei (eg, microinvasive parts) MNA can be easier......Previous studies have shown that quantitative, histopathologic features obtained from a carefully selected area in the tumor section ("selective" approach) have a strong prognostic value in breast cancer. On the other hand, it was found that mean nuclear volume estimation in the whole area...... as to their intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility in 22 invasive breast cancer cases. The mean nuclear volume (nuclear vv) was assessed both in the most atypical area (AREA) (selected on morphologic criteria) and in the whole tumor section (TOTAL). Furthermore, the correlation with mean nuclear (profile) area...

National Strategy for Regaining Control over Orphan Sources and Improving Control over Vulnerable Sources (Arabic Edition)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2011-07-15

The IAEA's Statute authorizes the Agency to 'establish or adopt' standards of safety for protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property' - standards that the IAEA must use in its own operations, and which States can apply by means of their regulatory provisions for nuclear and radiation safety. The IAEA does this in consultation with the competent organs of the United Nations and with the specialized agencies concerned. A comprehensive set of high quality standards under regular review is a key element of a stable and sustainable global safety regime, as is the IAEA's assistance in their application. The IAEA commenced its safety standards programme in 1958. The emphasis placed on quality, fitness for purpose and continuous improvement has led to the widespread use of the IAEA standards throughout the world. The Safety Standards Series now includes unified Fundamental Safety Principles, which represent an international consensus on what must constitute a high level of protection and safety. With the strong support of the Commission on Safety Standards, the IAEA is working to promote the global acceptance and use of its standards. Standards are only effective if they are properly applied in practice. The IAEA's safety services encompass design, siting and engineering safety, operational safety, radiation safety, safe transport of radioactive material and safe management of radioactive waste, as well as governmental organization, regulatory matters and safety culture in organizations. These safety services assist Member States in the application of the standards and enable valuable experience and insights to be shared. Regulating safety is a national responsibility, and many States have decided to adopt the IAEA's standards for use in their national regulations. For parties to the various international safety conventions, IAEA standards provide a consistent, reliable means of ensuring the effective fulfilment of obligations under the conventions

The correction of occlusal vertical dimension on tooth wear

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rostiny Rostiny

2007-12-01

Full Text Available The loss of occlusal vertical dimension which is caused by tooth wear is necessarily treated to regain vertical dimension. Correctional therapy should be done as early possible. In this case, simple and relatively low cost therapy was performed. In unserve loss of occlusal vertical dimension, partial removable denture could be used and the improvement of lengthening anterior teeth using composite resin to improve to regain vertical dimensional occlusion.

Symbolic meanings of sex in relationships: Developing the Meanings of Sexual Behavior Inventory.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Amanda M; Rogge, Ronald D

2017-10-01

Consistent with symbolic interactionism and motivation research, the study explored the meanings of sexual behavior in romantic relationships in a sample of 3,003 online respondents. Starting with a pool of 104 respondent-generated items, Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor analyses in separate sample halves revealed a stable set of 9 dimensions within that item pool that formed 2 higher-order factors representing positive (to share pleasure, to bond, to de-stress, to energize the relationship, to learn more about each other) and negative (to manage conflict, as an incentive, to express anger, and to control partner) meanings of sexual behavior within relationships. Item Response Theory analyses helped select the 4-5 most effective items of each dimension for inclusion in the Meanings of Sexual Behavior Inventory (MoSBI). Generalizability analyses suggested that the MoSBI subscale scores continued to show high levels of internal consistency across a broad range of demographic subgroups (e.g., racial/ethnic groups, gay and lesbian respondents, and various levels of education). The MoSBI subscales demonstrated moderate and distinct patterns of association with a range of conceptual boundary scales (e.g., relationship and sexual satisfaction, emotional support, negative conflict behavior, and frequency of sexual behavior) suggesting that these scales represent novel relationship processes. Consistent with this, analyses in the 862 respondents completing a 2-month follow-up assessment suggested that the meanings of sexual behavior predicted residual change in relationship satisfaction, even after controlling for frequency of sexual behavior within the relationships. Implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The limits of the mean field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guerra, E.M. de

2001-01-01

In these talks, we review non relativistic selfconsistent mean field theories, their scope and limitations. We first discuss static and time dependent mean field approaches for particles and quasiparticles, together with applications. We then discuss extensions that go beyond the non-relativistic independent particle limit. On the one hand, we consider extensions concerned with restoration of symmetries and with the treatment of collective modes, particularly by means of quantized ATDHF. On the other hand, we consider extensions concerned with the relativistic dynamics of bound nucleons. We present data on nucleon momentum distributions that show the need for relativistic mean field approach and probe the limits of the mean field concept. Illustrative applications of various methods are presented stressing the role that selfconsistency plays in providing a unifying reliable framework to study all sorts of properties and phenomena. From global properties such as size, mass, lifetime,.., to detailed structure in excitation spectra (high spin, RPA modes,..), as well as charge, magnetization and velocity distributions. (orig.)

The Dual Meaning of the Expresion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Irani

2012-03-01

Full Text Available   Abstract The ironic expression "az bone dandan" (from the root has been written to mean "wholeheartedly and desirous "in all persian dictionaries including general and specific ones like those of idioms and expressions or the ones devoted to a particular poet ’ s or works terminology. In fact they have just pointed to one aspect of its meaning. Since this meaning was not in accordance whit the semantic structure of some of the lines of poetry, this study analysed a number of cases from old poetry and prose texts. The outcome shows that the aforementioned expression should be regarded as one of the "Opposits" in Persian, because in the collected cases one can see that the expression means exactly something contradictory which has been ignored by lexicographers. In the opposite case the expression means: "obliged or forced to do something. "This expression is an adverbial and a prepositional phrase. Â

Politics of Meaning in Mathematics Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skovsmose, Ole

2016-01-01

By a politics of meaning I refer to the social, economic, cultural and religious conditions for experiencing meaning. I refer as well to the layers of visons, assumptions, presumptions and preconceptions that might construct something as being meaningful. By addressing different politics of meani...... of such factors. Politics of meaning can be analysed with reference to sexism, racism, instrumentalism, the school mathematics tradition, critical mathematics education, and the banality of expertise....

Purpose and Meaning, Ethnic Identity, and

OpenAIRE

Kiang, Lisa; Fuligni, Andrew J.

2008-01-01

Purpose and meaning are primary facets of eudaimonic well-being, yet are understudied in adolescent development. Using data from 579 adolescents from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds, demographic differences in purpose and meaning, links with psychological and academic adjustment, links with ethnic identity, and the mediating role of purpose and meaning in associations between ethnic identity and adjustment were examined. Although no generational or gender differences in purpos...

Neutron fraction and neutrino mean free path predictions in relativistic mean field models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hutauruk, P.T.P.; Williams, C.K.; Sulaksono, A.; Mart, T.

2004-01-01

The equation of state (EOS) of dense matter and neutrino mean free path (NMFP) in a neutron star have been studied by using relativistic mean field models motivated by effective field theory. It is found that the models predict too large proton fractions, although one of the models (G2) predicts an acceptable EOS. This is caused by the isovector terms. Except G2, the other two models predict anomalous NMFP's. In order to minimize the anomaly, besides an acceptable EOS, a large M* is favorable. A model with large M* retains the regularity in the NMFP even for a small neutron fraction

Exploring a model for finding meaning in the changing world of work (Part 3: Meaning as framing context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel H. Burger

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Orientation: This article, the final in a series of three papers, locates organisational change, specifically within the context of individuals’ experience of ‘meaning’, as conceptualised in Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy. Research purpose: The purpose of this theoretical paper is to investigate the context of meaning in organisational change by exploring the relationship between meaning and change. Motivation for the study: Although literature on change management is available in abundance, very little research has been focussed on the micro-level issues pertaining to organisational change, and virtually no research relating to the ‘existential meaning’ context of such change could be found. Research design, approach and method: The study was conducted by means of a review of literature, guided by the theoretical perspectives of logotherapy. Main findings: Whilst systems to which individuals traditionally turned for meaning decline, organisations become increasingly important for employees’ experience of meaning. As organisational change threatens such meaning, resistance to change may occur, which inhibits organisations’ ability to change. Logotherapy provides a useful framework for understanding this meaning context, which could be utilised to inform frameworks to guide change implementation more successfully. Practical and managerial implications: An understanding of the role that meaning can play in causing − and hence reducing − resistance to change may be of great value to organisations attempting to implement change initiatives. Contribution: The value-add of the article is grounded on its exploration of the relatively uncharted territory of how the experience of meaning by employees may impact organisational change. This article therefore provides a novel perspective for conceptualising change. In addition, it suggests specific recommendations for utilising an understanding of the meaning change relationship with the

Exploring a model for finding meaning in the changing world of work (Part 3: Meaning as framing context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel H. Burger

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Orientation: This article, the final in a series of three papers, locates organisational change, specifically within the context of individuals’ experience of ‘meaning’, as conceptualised in Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy.Research purpose: The purpose of this theoretical paper is to investigate the context of meaning in organisational change by exploring the relationship between meaning and change.Motivation for the study: Although literature on change management is available in abundance, very little research has been focussed on the micro-level issues pertaining to organisational change, and virtually no research relating to the ‘existential meaning’ context of such change could be found.Research design, approach and method: The study was conducted by means of a review of literature, guided by the theoretical perspectives of logotherapy.Main findings: Whilst systems to which individuals traditionally turned for meaning decline, organisations become increasingly important for employees’ experience of meaning. As organisational change threatens such meaning, resistance to change may occur, which inhibits organisations’ ability to change. Logotherapy provides a useful framework for understanding this meaning context, which could be utilised to inform frameworks to guide change implementation more successfully.Practical and managerial implications: An understanding of the role that meaning can play in causing − and hence reducing − resistance to change may be of great value to organisations attempting to implement change initiatives.Contribution: The value-add of the article is grounded on its exploration of the relatively uncharted territory of how the experience of meaning by employees may impact organisational change. This article therefore provides a novel perspective for conceptualising change. In addition, it suggests specific recommendations for utilising an understanding of the meaning change relationship with the

Continuous Time Finite State Mean Field Games

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gomes, Diogo A.; Mohr, Joana; Souza, Rafael Rigão

2013-01-01

In this paper we consider symmetric games where a large number of players can be in any one of d states. We derive a limiting mean field model and characterize its main properties. This mean field limit is a system of coupled ordinary differential equations with initial-terminal data. For this mean field problem we prove a trend to equilibrium theorem, that is convergence, in an appropriate limit, to stationary solutions. Then we study an N+1-player problem, which the mean field model attempts to approximate. Our main result is the convergence as N→∞ of the mean field model and an estimate of the rate of convergence. We end the paper with some further examples for potential mean field games

Continuous Time Finite State Mean Field Games

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gomes, Diogo A., E-mail: dgomes@math.ist.utl.pt [Instituto Superior Tecnico, Center for Mathematical Analysis, Geometry, and Dynamical Systems, Departamento de Matematica (Portugal); Mohr, Joana, E-mail: joana.mohr@ufrgs.br; Souza, Rafael Rigao, E-mail: rafars@mat.ufrgs.br [UFRGS, Instituto de Matematica (Brazil)

2013-08-01

In this paper we consider symmetric games where a large number of players can be in any one of d states. We derive a limiting mean field model and characterize its main properties. This mean field limit is a system of coupled ordinary differential equations with initial-terminal data. For this mean field problem we prove a trend to equilibrium theorem, that is convergence, in an appropriate limit, to stationary solutions. Then we study an N+1-player problem, which the mean field model attempts to approximate. Our main result is the convergence as N{yields}{infinity} of the mean field model and an estimate of the rate of convergence. We end the paper with some further examples for potential mean field games.

Meaning in animal and human communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott-Phillips, Thomas C

2015-05-01

What is meaning? While traditionally the domain of philosophy and linguistics, this question, and others related to it, is critical for cognitive and comparative approaches to communication. This short essay provides a concise and accessible description of how the term meaning can and should be used, how it relates to 'intentional communication', and what would constitute good evidence of meaning in animal communication, in the sense that is relevant for comparisons with human language.

Engagement Means Everyone

Science.gov (United States)

Patton, Carol

2012-01-01

Employee engagement is not just HR's responsibility. While HR is responsible for the process of measuring and driving engagement, improving it is actually everyone's responsibility. And that means reducing the barriers to productivity to drive business performance. Training departments can play a pivotal role. Their job is to enhance curriculum or…

GRAPHIC AND MEANING IN LOGO DESIGN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ADÎR Victor

2015-06-01

Full Text Available To design a logo is a special work. It means creation, intelligence, use of colors, and of course, signs and symbols. It is about a visual personality and a signature of an entity. During the working process, a designer has to answer to a few questions, such as: What signs, symbols and colors have to be used? or What are the important things be design in a logo? What are the logos in the market about a same activity? To answer means to design it. The meaning comes mainly from graphics and that is why it is compulsory to pay attention to each detail. The paper talks about the connection between graphic and meaning which may create a corporate identity.

Scintillation camera with improved output means

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lange, K.; Wiesen, E.J.; Woronowicz, E.M.

1978-01-01

In a scintillation camera system, the output pulse signals from an array of photomultiplier tubes are coupled to the inputs of individual preamplifiers. The preamplifier output signals are coupled to circuitry for computing the x and y coordinates of the scintillations. A cathode ray oscilloscope is used to form an image corresponding with the pattern in which radiation is emitted by a body. Means for improving the uniformity and resolution of the scintillations are provided. The means comprise biasing means coupled to the outputs of selected preamplifiers so that output signals below a predetermined amplitude are not suppressed and signals falling within increasing ranges of amplitudes are increasingly suppressed. In effect, the biasing means make the preamplifiers non-linear for selected signal levels

Continuous time finite state mean field games

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.; Mohr, Joana; Souza, Rafael Rigã o

2013-01-01

In this paper we consider symmetric games where a large number of players can be in any one of d states. We derive a limiting mean field model and characterize its main properties. This mean field limit is a system of coupled ordinary differential equations with initial-terminal data. For this mean field problem we prove a trend to equilibrium theorem, that is convergence, in an appropriate limit, to stationary solutions. Then we study an N+1-player problem, which the mean field model attempts to approximate. Our main result is the convergence as N→∞ of the mean field model and an estimate of the rate of convergence. We end the paper with some further examples for potential mean field games. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Continuous time finite state mean field games

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.

2013-04-23

In this paper we consider symmetric games where a large number of players can be in any one of d states. We derive a limiting mean field model and characterize its main properties. This mean field limit is a system of coupled ordinary differential equations with initial-terminal data. For this mean field problem we prove a trend to equilibrium theorem, that is convergence, in an appropriate limit, to stationary solutions. Then we study an N+1-player problem, which the mean field model attempts to approximate. Our main result is the convergence as N→∞ of the mean field model and an estimate of the rate of convergence. We end the paper with some further examples for potential mean field games. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Communication as Sociocultural Meaning Exchange:

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iyabode Omolara Akewo Daniel

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Communication is expected to result in meaning exchange. However, when definite meanings could not be established in a communication exchange, an odd situation usually results. Such situations are observed to actually go beyond syntactic and logical misnomer in the communication process. This paper thus examines the semantic oddities in Richard Wright’s Black Boy. It made use of the linkage points of such linguistic approaches like pragmatics, semiotics, presupposition and truth-condition semantics to do a semantic analysis of the novel. It found that sociological factors have a great deal of influence on the odd way of interpreting utterances/communication signals in the text. The paper therefore advocates that there is the need to incorporate co-text sociological elements as being of relevance to meaning analysis.

Understanding and building upon effort to return to work for people with long-term disability and job loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Saunders, S L; MacEachen, E; Nedelec, B

2015-01-01

Effort is a concept that underlies programs assisting people with work disability to re-enter the labour force. During re-entry, attention is paid to the effort invested by the worker with an injury. However, for those with chronic work disability, the motivation to return to work (RTW) may be questioned by benefit service providers and healthcare professionals. The objective of this paper is to describe the efforts made by people with long term work-disability to regain a foothold on the labour market. This phenomenological study explored the meaning of work for people with long-term work disability and job loss. Twenty-seven interviews were conducted with nine participants. A thematic analysis was completed of the collected data. A key finding of this study is the variety and degree of effort exerted by participants to regain employment, despite time away from the workplace and system barriers. Effort was exerted to retain pre-accident employment; to obtain new work following job loss; and, to remain in a new job. This study suggests that if the RTW effort of people with long-term work disability is not fully acknowledged or supported, this population will remain unemployed where their strengths as competent, experienced workers will continue to be wasted.

Perfluoroalkyl substances and changes in body weight and resting metabolic rate in response to weight-loss diets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Gang; Dhana, Klodian; Furtado, Jeremy D

2018-01-01

in body weight and resting metabolic rate (RMR) in a diet-induced weight-loss setting. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In the 2-year POUNDS Lost randomized clinical trial based in Boston, Massachusetts, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that examined the effects of energy-restricted diets on weight changes, baseline...... and 24 months. Participants lost an average of 6.4 kg of body weight during the first 6 months (weight-loss period) and subsequently regained an average of 2.7 kg of body weight during the period of 6-24 months (weight regain period). After multivariate adjustment, baseline PFAS concentrations were...... not significantly associated with concurrent body weight or weight loss during the first 6 months. In contrast, higher baseline levels of PFASs were significantly associated with a greater weight regain, primarily in women. In women, comparing the highest to the lowest tertiles of PFAS concentrations...

Jeans and Means

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 1; Issue 8. Jeans and Means - The Story of Indigo. Subramania Ranganathan. Series Article Volume 1 Issue 8 August 1996 pp 22-27. Fulltext. Click here to view fulltext PDF. Permanent link: https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/001/08/0022-0027 ...

Dynamic Mean-Variance Asset Allocation

OpenAIRE

Basak, Suleyman; Chabakauri, Georgy

2009-01-01

Mean-variance criteria remain prevalent in multi-period problems, and yet not much is known about their dynamically optimal policies. We provide a fully analytical characterization of the optimal dynamic mean-variance portfolios within a general incomplete-market economy, and recover a simple structure that also inherits several conventional properties of static models. We also identify a probability measure that incorporates intertemporal hedging demands and facilitates much tractability in ...

Iodine removing means

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takeshima, Masaki.

1975-01-01

Object: To employ exhaust gas from an incinerator to effect regeneration of an adsorbent such as active carbon which has adsorbed a radioactive gas such as iodine contained in the ventilating system exhaust gas of a boiling water reactor power plant. Structure: Radioactive exhaust gas such as iodine, xenon and krypton is led to an active carbon adsorbing means for removal through adsorption. When the adsorbing function of the active carbon adsorption means is reduced, the exhaust gas discharged from the incinerator is cooled down to 300 0 C and then caused to flow into the active carbon layer, and after depriving it of sulfur dioxide gas, oxides of nitrogen, daughter nuclides resulting from attenuation of radioactive gas and so forth, these being adsorbed by the carbon active layer, it is led again to the incinerator, whereby the radioactivity accompanying the regenerated gas is sealed as ash within the incinerator. Further, similarly accompanying fine active carbon particles and the like are utilized as a heat source for the incinerator. (Kamimura, M.)

Mean field interaction in biochemical reaction networks

KAUST Repository

Tembine, Hamidou; Tempone, Raul; Vilanova, Pedro

2011-01-01

In this paper we establish a relationship between chemical dynamics and mean field game dynamics. We show that chemical reaction networks can be studied using noisy mean field limits. We provide deterministic, noisy and switching mean field limits

Meaning shift: findings from wellness acupuncture.

Science.gov (United States)

Stibich, Mark; Wissow, Lawrence

2006-01-01

Wellness or holistic acupuncture places an emphasis on working with and developing the patient's understanding of health and illness. This research project examines changes in meaning in 367 letters from successful wellness acupuncture. Mentions of changes of the meaning of health and illness were categorized into themes using content analysis. Five main meaning shifts were identified in the data. These shifts are (1) from a goal of fixing the problem to a goal of increasing health, (2) from symptoms as problems to symptoms as teachers, (3) from healing as passive to healing as active, (4) from being dominated by illness to moving beyond the illness, and (5) from regarding the practitioner as a technician to regarding the practitioner as a healer or friend. The shifts in meaning seen in the data illustrate a potential pathway for bringing health benefits to patients and may provide a useful strategy for healing. Narrative (defined here as "first-person accounts by respondents of their experience") is thought to play a major role in the manifestation of symptoms and the ability of patients to cope with illness. Patients suffer not only from their primary symptoms, but also from the results and effects of their illnesses, such as depression and changes in their relationships. For the patient, symptoms often hold much meaning beyond physical sensation. A recurrence of symptoms can have other unpleasant results, such as additional trips to doctors, paying for medications, time off from work, not being able to play with children, or changes in relationships with family members. In many cases, the anxiety and depression surrounding the symptoms causes suffering which are greater than the suffering caused by the physical symptoms directly. These factors also change how the ill individual interacts socially, thereby reducing both instrumental and emotional social support, resulting in a downward spiral of suffering. By interacting with narrative, a path to improved health

Controlling Access to Suicide Means

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miriam Iosue

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Restricting access to common means of suicide, such as firearms, toxic gas, pesticides and other, has been shown to be effective in reducing rates of death in suicide. In the present review we aimed to summarize the empirical and clinical literature on controlling the access to means of suicide. Methods: This review made use of both MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science and the Cochrane library databases, identifying all English articles with the keywords “suicide means”, “suicide method”, “suicide prediction” or “suicide prevention” and other relevant keywords. Results: A number of factors may influence an individual’s decision regarding method in a suicide act, but there is substantial support that easy access influences the choice of method. In many countries, restrictions of access to common means of suicide has lead to lower overall suicide rates, particularly regarding suicide by firearms in USA, detoxification of domestic and motor vehicle gas in England and other countries, toxic pesticides in rural areas, barriers at jumping sites and hanging, by introducing “safe rooms” in prisons and hospitals. Moreover, decline in prescription of barbiturates and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs, as well as limitation of drugs pack size for paracetamol and salicylate has reduced suicides by overdose, while increased prescription of SSRIs seems to have lowered suicidal rates. Conclusions: Restriction to means of suicide may be particularly effective in contexts where the method is popular, highly lethal, widely available, and/or not easily substituted by other similar methods. However, since there is some risk of means substitution, restriction of access should be implemented in conjunction with other suicide prevention strategies.

Mean value theorem in topological vector spaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khan, L.A.

1994-08-01

The aim of this note is to give shorter proofs of the mean value theorem, the mean value inequality, and the mean value inclusion for the class of Gateaux differentiable functions having values in a topological vector space. (author). 6 refs

Robust Means Modeling: An Alternative for Hypothesis Testing of Independent Means under Variance Heterogeneity and Nonnormality

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Weihua; Hancock, Gregory R.

2012-01-01

This study proposes robust means modeling (RMM) approaches for hypothesis testing of mean differences for between-subjects designs in order to control the biasing effects of nonnormality and variance inequality. Drawing from structural equation modeling (SEM), the RMM approaches make no assumption of variance homogeneity and employ robust…

Mean-downside risk versus mean-variance efficient asset class allocations in relation to the investment horizon

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruiter, de A.J.C.; Brouwer, F.

1996-01-01

In this paper we examine the difference between a Mean-Downside Risk (MDR) based asset allocation decision and a Mean-Variance (MV) based decision. Using a vector autoregressive specification, future return series, trom 1 month up to 10 years, of several US stock and bond asset classes have been

Electron Inelastic-Mean-Free-Path Database

Science.gov (United States)

SRD 71 NIST Electron Inelastic-Mean-Free-Path Database (PC database, no charge)   This database provides values of electron inelastic mean free paths (IMFPs) for use in quantitative surface analyses by AES and XPS.

Laparoscopic reversal of mini-gastric bypass to original anatomy for severe postoperative malnutrition.

Science.gov (United States)

Genser, Laurent; Soprani, Antoine; Tabbara, Malek; Siksik, Jean-Michel; Cady, Jean; Carandina, Sergio

2017-12-01

Malnutrition after mini-gastric bypass (MGB) is a rare and dreaded complication with few data available regarding its surgical management. We aim to report the feasibility, safety, and results of laparoscopic reversal of MGB to normal anatomy (RMGB) in case of severe and refractory malnutrition syndrome after intensive nutritional support (SRMS). A 10-year retrospective chart review was performed on patients who underwent RMGB (video included) for SRMS following MGB. Twenty-six of 2934 patients underwent a RMGB at a mean delay of 20.9 ± 13.4 months post-MGB. At presentation, mean body mass index (BMI), excess weight loss (%EWL), and albumin serum level were 22 ± 4.4 kg/m 2 , 103.6 ± 22.5%, and 25.5 ± 3.6 gr/L, respectively. Seventeen (63.5%) patients had at least one severe malnutrition related complication including severe edema in 13 (50%), venous ulcers in 2 (7.7%), infectious complications in 7 (27%), deep venous thrombosis in 5 (19.2%), and motor deficit in 5 (19.2%) patients. At surgical exploration, 8 of 12 (66.5%) patients had a biliary limb longer than 200 cm and 9 (34.6%) had bile reflux symptoms. Overall morbidity was 30.8% but lower when resecting the entire previous gastrojejunostomy with creation of a new jejunojejunostomy (8.3 vs 50%, p = 0.03). After a mean follow-up of 8 ± 9.7 months, all patients experienced a complete clinical and biological regression of the SRMS after the RMGB despite a mean 13.9 kg weight regain in 16 (61.5%) patients. Post-MGB SRMS and its related comorbidities are rare but dreaded conditions. Although burdened by a significant postoperative morbidity and weight regain, RMGB remains an effective option to consider, when intensive nutritional support fails.

Mean Field Games Models-A Brief Survey

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.

2013-11-20

The mean-field framework was developed to study systems with an infinite number of rational agents in competition, which arise naturally in many applications. The systematic study of these problems was started, in the mathematical community by Lasry and Lions, and independently around the same time in the engineering community by P. Caines, Minyi Huang, and Roland Malhamé. Since these seminal contributions, the research in mean-field games has grown exponentially, and in this paper we present a brief survey of mean-field models as well as recent results and techniques. In the first part of this paper, we study reduced mean-field games, that is, mean-field games, which are written as a system of a Hamilton-Jacobi equation and a transport or Fokker-Planck equation. We start by the derivation of the models and by describing some of the existence results available in the literature. Then we discuss the uniqueness of a solution and propose a definition of relaxed solution for mean-field games that allows to establish uniqueness under minimal regularity hypothesis. A special class of mean-field games that we discuss in some detail is equivalent to the Euler-Lagrange equation of suitable functionals. We present in detail various additional examples, including extensions to population dynamics models. This section ends with a brief overview of the random variables point of view as well as some applications to extended mean-field games models. These extended models arise in problems where the costs incurred by the agents depend not only on the distribution of the other agents, but also on their actions. The second part of the paper concerns mean-field games in master form. These mean-field games can be modeled as a partial differential equation in an infinite dimensional space. We discuss both deterministic models as well as problems where the agents are correlated. We end the paper with a mean-field model for price impact. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Mean Field Games Models-A Brief Survey

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.; Saú de, Joã o

2013-01-01

The mean-field framework was developed to study systems with an infinite number of rational agents in competition, which arise naturally in many applications. The systematic study of these problems was started, in the mathematical community by Lasry and Lions, and independently around the same time in the engineering community by P. Caines, Minyi Huang, and Roland Malhamé. Since these seminal contributions, the research in mean-field games has grown exponentially, and in this paper we present a brief survey of mean-field models as well as recent results and techniques. In the first part of this paper, we study reduced mean-field games, that is, mean-field games, which are written as a system of a Hamilton-Jacobi equation and a transport or Fokker-Planck equation. We start by the derivation of the models and by describing some of the existence results available in the literature. Then we discuss the uniqueness of a solution and propose a definition of relaxed solution for mean-field games that allows to establish uniqueness under minimal regularity hypothesis. A special class of mean-field games that we discuss in some detail is equivalent to the Euler-Lagrange equation of suitable functionals. We present in detail various additional examples, including extensions to population dynamics models. This section ends with a brief overview of the random variables point of view as well as some applications to extended mean-field games models. These extended models arise in problems where the costs incurred by the agents depend not only on the distribution of the other agents, but also on their actions. The second part of the paper concerns mean-field games in master form. These mean-field games can be modeled as a partial differential equation in an infinite dimensional space. We discuss both deterministic models as well as problems where the agents are correlated. We end the paper with a mean-field model for price impact. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Mean Lagrangian drift in continental shelf waves

Science.gov (United States)

Drivdal, M.; Weber, J. E. H.

2012-04-01

The time- and depth-averaged mean drift induced by barotropic continental shelf waves (CSW's) is studied theoretically for idealized shelf topography by calculating the mean volume fluxes to second order in wave amplitude. The waves suffer weak spatial damping due to bottom friction, which leads to radiation stress forcing of the mean fluxes. In terms of the total wave energy density E¯ over the shelf region, the radiation stress tensor component S¯11 for CSW's is found to be different from that of shallow water surface waves in a non-rotating ocean. For CSW's, the ratio ¯S11/¯E depends strongly on the wave number. The mean Lagrangian flow forced by the radiation stress can be subdivided into a Stokes drift and a mean Eulerian drift current. The magnitude of the latter depends on the ratio between the radiation stress and the bottom stress acting on the mean flow. When the effect of bottom friction acts equally strong on the waves and the mean current, calculations for short CSW's show that the Stokes drift and the friction-dependent wave-induced mean Eulerian current varies approximately in anti-phase over the shelf, and that the latter is numerically the largest. For long CSW's they are approximately in phase. In both cases the mean Lagrangian current, which is responsible for the net particle drift, has its largest numerical value at the coast on the shallow part of the shelf. Enhancing the effect of bottom friction on the Eulerian mean flow, results in a general current speed reduction, as well as a change in spatial structure for long waves. Applying realistic physical parameters for the continental shelf west of Norway, calculations yield along-shelf mean drift velocities for short CSW's that may be important for the transport of biological material, neutral tracers, and underwater plumes of dissolved oil from deep water drilling accidents.

Critical study of the dispersive n- 90Zr mean field by means of a new variational method

Science.gov (United States)

Mahaux, C.; Sartor, R.

1994-02-01

A new variational method is developed for the construction of the dispersive nucleon-nucleus mean field at negative and positive energies. Like the variational moment approach that we had previously proposed, the new method only uses phenomenological optical-model potentials as input. It is simpler and more flexible than the previous approach. It is applied to a critical investigation of the n- 90Zr mean field between -25 and +25 MeV. This system is of particular interest because conflicting results had recently been obtained by two different groups. While the imaginary parts of the phenomenological optical-model potentials provided by these two groups are similar, their real parts are quite different. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that these two sets of phenomenological optical-model potentials are both compatible with the dispersion relation which connects the real and imaginary parts of the mean field. Previous hints to the contrary, by one of the two other groups, are shown to be due to unjustified approximations. A striking outcome of the present study is that it is important to explicitly introduce volume absorption in the dispersion relation, although volume absorption is negligible in the energy domain investigated here. Because of the existence of two sets of phenomenological optical-model potentials, our variational method yields two dispersive mean fields whose real parts are quite different at small or negative energies. No preference for one of the two dispersive mean fields can be expressed on purely empirical grounds since they both yield fair agreement with the experimental cross sections as well as with the observed energies of the bound single-particle states. However, we argue that one of these two mean fields is physically more meaningful, because the radial shape of its Hartree-Fock type component is independent of energy, as expected on theoretical grounds. This preferred mean field is very close to the one which had been obtained by the Ohio

Portfolio optimization with mean-variance model

Science.gov (United States)

Hoe, Lam Weng; Siew, Lam Weng

2016-06-01

Investors wish to achieve the target rate of return at the minimum level of risk in their investment. Portfolio optimization is an investment strategy that can be used to minimize the portfolio risk and can achieve the target rate of return. The mean-variance model has been proposed in portfolio optimization. The mean-variance model is an optimization model that aims to minimize the portfolio risk which is the portfolio variance. The objective of this study is to construct the optimal portfolio using the mean-variance model. The data of this study consists of weekly returns of 20 component stocks of FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBMKLCI). The results of this study show that the portfolio composition of the stocks is different. Moreover, investors can get the return at minimum level of risk with the constructed optimal mean-variance portfolio.

Negotiating meaning through artefacts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tavella, Elena

2015-01-01

This research contributes to the domain of strategy making, specifically to unpacking the complexity of sociomateriality in strategy discourse. Scholars have emphasized the potential of artefacts to enhance sensemaking during strategizing. However there is a lack of insight into how artefacts...... and conversational aspects are linked at the micro‑level of discourse, also how artefacts and sensemaking shape one another. This research addresses this gap by empirically analyzing strategy discourse within a facilitated modelling workshop. Considering strategizing as a socially constructed activity, the author...... analyzes a workshop transcript to assess the extent to which stakeholders’ appropriation of artefacts supports them in engaging in negotiation of meaning with action implications. Moreover, how artefacts and negotiation of meaning shape one another is identified. The data suggest that appropriating...

Nonasymptotic mean-field games

KAUST Repository

Tembine, Hamidou

2014-12-01

Mean-field games have been studied under the assumption of very large number of players. For such large systems, the basic idea consists to approximate large games by a stylized game model with a continuum of players. The approach has been shown to be useful in some applications. However, the stylized game model with continuum of decision-makers is rarely observed in practice and the approximation proposed in the asymptotic regime is meaningless for networked systems with few entities. In this paper we propose a mean-field framework that is suitable not only for large systems but also for a small world with few number of entities. The applicability of the proposed framework is illustrated through a dynamic auction with asymmetric valuation distributions.

Nonasymptotic mean-field games

KAUST Repository

Tembine, Hamidou

2014-12-01

Mean-field games have been studied under the assumption of very large number of players. For such large systems, the basic idea consists of approximating large games by a stylized game model with a continuum of players. The approach has been shown to be useful in some applications. However, the stylized game model with continuum of decision-makers is rarely observed in practice and the approximation proposed in the asymptotic regime is meaningless for networks with few entities. In this paper, we propose a mean-field framework that is suitable not only for large systems but also for a small world with few number of entities. The applicability of the proposed framework is illustrated through various examples including dynamic auction with asymmetric valuation distributions, and spiteful bidders.

Mean field interaction in biochemical reaction networks

KAUST Repository

Tembine, Hamidou

2011-09-01

In this paper we establish a relationship between chemical dynamics and mean field game dynamics. We show that chemical reaction networks can be studied using noisy mean field limits. We provide deterministic, noisy and switching mean field limits and illustrate them with numerical examples. © 2011 IEEE.

Further heuristics for $k$-means: The merge-and-split heuristic and the $(k,l)$-means

OpenAIRE

Nielsen, Frank; Nock, Richard

2014-01-01

Finding the optimal $k$-means clustering is NP-hard in general and many heuristics have been designed for minimizing monotonically the $k$-means objective. We first show how to extend Lloyd's batched relocation heuristic and Hartigan's single-point relocation heuristic to take into account empty-cluster and single-point cluster events, respectively. Those events tend to increasingly occur when $k$ or $d$ increases, or when performing several restarts. First, we show that those special events ...

Symbols and schemas in emotional eating

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grunert, Suzanne C.

1995-01-01

. Particularly the aspects of security and pleasure are suggested to be important motivators for emotional eating. How these symbolic meanings relate to eating as a regulatory device for emotions is explained by a schema- theoretical approach distinguishing between automatic adaptation mechanisms and strategic......Emotional eating behaviour has been of interest to psychologists exclusively as a disorder. However, evidence suggests that it is a common aspect of normal food habits, initiated by both positive and negative emotions in order to regulate these. T behaviour thus serves to regain or preserve...... the psycho-mental homeostasis. To explain this phenomenon it is first shown which symbolic meanings are associated with eating and foods. The numerous connotations can be grouped into four basic dimensions: Security and pleasure as self-oriented, and status and prestige as socially oriented emotional symbols...

An implementation of the relational k-means algorithm

OpenAIRE

Szalkai, Balázs

2013-01-01

A C# implementation of a generalized k-means variant called relational k-means is described here. Relational k-means is a generalization of the well-known k-means clustering method which works for non-Euclidean scenarios as well. The input is an arbitrary distance matrix, as opposed to the traditional k-means method, where the clustered objects need to be identified with vectors.

Tentando readquirir o controle: a vivência do pré-escolar no pós-operatório de postectomia Intentando readquirir el control: la vivencia del preescolar en el postoperatorio de postectomia Trying to regain control: preschool boys' experience in the post-operative stage of circumcision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Allison Scholler de Castro

2004-10-01

postectomia.This study was carried out with 3 to 6 year-old boys undergoing circumcision, with a view to understanding the meaning of the interactions they experienced them during the post-operative period as well as identifying their strategies while experiencing the surgery. Symbolic Interactionism was used as a theoretical reference framework, and Grounded Theory as a methodological framework. Due to these children's verbal development characteristics, the interview was mediated by therapeutic play. Their mothers were also interviewed as informers of their children's experience. Data were analyzed up to the point of categorization of the meanings, revealing the following category of concepts: Trying to regain control. Understanding the whole experience offers important elements to rethink nursing care to preschool boy who undergo circumcision, as well as to his family.

Frankl and the Realm of Meaning.

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Ajit K.

1998-01-01

Presents the importance that meaning and values have in human life, with special reference to Viktor Frankl's work. Points out some pathological phenomena that result from the frustration of the quest for meaning and describes principles of logotherapy to deal with them. (Author)

Geometric mean for subspace selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Dacheng; Li, Xuelong; Wu, Xindong; Maybank, Stephen J

2009-02-01

Subspace selection approaches are powerful tools in pattern classification and data visualization. One of the most important subspace approaches is the linear dimensionality reduction step in the Fisher's linear discriminant analysis (FLDA), which has been successfully employed in many fields such as biometrics, bioinformatics, and multimedia information management. However, the linear dimensionality reduction step in FLDA has a critical drawback: for a classification task with c classes, if the dimension of the projected subspace is strictly lower than c - 1, the projection to a subspace tends to merge those classes, which are close together in the original feature space. If separate classes are sampled from Gaussian distributions, all with identical covariance matrices, then the linear dimensionality reduction step in FLDA maximizes the mean value of the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergences between different classes. Based on this viewpoint, the geometric mean for subspace selection is studied in this paper. Three criteria are analyzed: 1) maximization of the geometric mean of the KL divergences, 2) maximization of the geometric mean of the normalized KL divergences, and 3) the combination of 1 and 2. Preliminary experimental results based on synthetic data, UCI Machine Learning Repository, and handwriting digits show that the third criterion is a potential discriminative subspace selection method, which significantly reduces the class separation problem in comparing with the linear dimensionality reduction step in FLDA and its several representative extensions.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEAN-VARIANCE AND MEAN-CVAR PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZATION MODELS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Panna Miskolczi

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Everybody heard already that one should not expect high returns without high risk, or one should not expect safety without low returns. The goal of portfolio theory is to find the balance between maximizing the return and minimizing the risk. To do so we have to first understand and measure the risk. Naturally a good risk measure has to satisfy several properties - in theory and in practise. Markowitz suggested to use the variance as a risk measure in portfolio theory. This led to the so called mean-variance model - for which Markowitz received the Nobel Prize in 1990. The model has been criticized because it is well suited for elliptical distributions but it may lead to incorrect conclusions in the case of non-elliptical distributions. Since then many risk measures have been introduced, of which the Value at Risk (VaR is the most widely used in the recent years. Despite of the widespread use of the Value at Risk there are some fundamental problems with it. It does not satisfy the subadditivity property and it ignores the severity of losses in the far tail of the profit-and-loss (P&L distribution. Moreover, its non-convexity makes VaR impossible to use in optimization problems. To come over these issues the Expected Shortfall (ES as a coherent risk measure was developed. Expected Shortfall is also called Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR. Compared to Value at Risk, ES is more sensitive to the tail behaviour of the P&L distribution function. In the first part of the paper I state the definition of these three risk measures. In the second part I deal with my main question: What is happening if we replace the variance with the Expected Shortfall in the portfolio optimization process. Do we have different optimal portfolios as a solution? And thus, does the solution suggests to decide differently in the two cases? To answer to these questions I analyse seven Hungarian stock exchange companies. First I use the mean-variance portfolio optimization model

Lagrangian averaging with geodesic mean.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, Marcel

2017-11-01

This paper revisits the derivation of the Lagrangian averaged Euler (LAE), or Euler- α equations in the light of an intrinsic definition of the averaged flow map as the geodesic mean on the volume-preserving diffeomorphism group. Under the additional assumption that first-order fluctuations are statistically isotropic and transported by the mean flow as a vector field, averaging of the kinetic energy Lagrangian of an ideal fluid yields the LAE Lagrangian. The derivation presented here assumes a Euclidean spatial domain without boundaries.

29 CFR 780.328 - Meaning of livestock.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Meaning of livestock. 780.328 Section 780.328 Labor...) Statutory Provisions § 780.328 Meaning of livestock. The term “livestock” includes cattle, sheep, horses... § 780.120. Turkeys or domesticated fowl are considered poultry and not livestock within the meaning of...

Emergence and Evolution of Meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José M. Díaz Nafría

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The category of meaning is traced forward starting from the origin of the Universe itself as well as its very grounding in pre-geometry. Different from many former approaches in the theories of information and also in biosemiotics, we will show that the forms of meaning emerge simultaneously (alongside with information and energy. Hence, information is always meaningful (in a sense to be explicated rather than its meaning would show up as a later specification of information within social systems only. This perspective taken has two immediate consequences: (1 We follow the GDI as defined by Floridi, though we modify it somehow as to the aspect of truthfulness. (2 We can conceptually solve Capurro’s trilemma. Hence, what we actually do is to follow the strict (i.e. optimistic line of UTI in the sense of Hofkirchner’s. While doing this, we treat energy and information as two different categorial aspects of one and the same underlying primordial structure.

Mean-Gini Portfolio Analysis: A Pedagogic Illustration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Sherman Cheung

2007-05-01

Full Text Available It is well known in the finance literature that mean-variance analysis is inappropriate when asset returns are not normally distributed or investors’ preferences of returns are not characterized by quadratic functions. The normality assumption has been widely rejected in cases of emerging market equities and hedge funds. The mean-Gini framework is an attractive alternative as it is consistent with stochastic dominance rules regardless of the probability distributions of asset returns. Applying mean-Gini to a portfolio setting involving multiple assets, however, has always been challenging to business students whose training in optimization is limited. This paper introduces a simple spreadsheet-based approach to mean-Gini portfolio optimization, thus allowing the mean-Gini concepts to be covered more effectively in finance courses such as portfolio theory and investment analysis.

Meaning Making and Psychological Adjustment following Cancer: The Mediating Roles of Growth, Life Meaning, and Restored Just-World Beliefs

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Crystal L.; Edmondson, Donald; Fenster, Juliane R.; Blank, Thomas O.

2008-01-01

Cancer survivors' efforts at meaning making may influence the extent to which they successfully make meaning from their experience (i.e., experience posttraumatic growth, find life meaningful, and restore beliefs in a just world), which may, in turn, influence their psychological adjustment. Previous research regarding both meaning making…

7 CFR 801.2 - Meaning of terms.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 7 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of terms. 801.2 Section 801.2 Agriculture... FOR GRAIN INSPECTION EQUIPMENT § 801.2 Meaning of terms. (a) Construction. Words used in the singular... used in this part 801. For the purposes of this part, the following terms shall have the meanings given...

Mean excitation energies for molecular ions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Phillip W.K.; Sauer, Stephan P.A.; Oddershede, Jens

2017-01-01

The essential material constant that determines the bulk of the stopping power of high energy projectiles, the mean excitation energy, is calculated for a range of smaller molecular ions using the RPA method. It is demonstrated that the mean excitation energy of both molecules and atoms increase...

Good fit versus meaning in fife

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Muijnck, W. de

2016-01-01

Meaning in life is too important not to study systematically, but doing so is made difficult by conceptual indeterminacy. An approach to meaning that is promising but, indeed, conceptually vague is Jonathan Haidt's 'cross-level coherence' account. In order to remove the vagueness, I propose a

Factorial and reduced K-means reconsidered

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Timmerman, Marieke E.; Ceulemans, Eva; Kiers, Henk A. L.; Vichi, Maurizio

2010-01-01

Factorial K-means analysis (FKM) and Reduced K-means analysis (RKM) are clustering methods that aim at simultaneously achieving a clustering of the objects and a dimension reduction of the variables. Because a comprehensive comparison between FKM and RKM is lacking in the literature so far, a

Mean-field theory and solitonic matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, T.D.

1989-01-01

Finite density solitonic matter is considered in the context of quantum field theory. Mean-field theory, which provides a reasonable description for single-soliton properties gives rise to a crystalline description. A heuristic description of solitonic matter is given which shows that the low-density limit of solitonic matter (the limit which is presumably relevant for nuclear matter) does not commute with the mean-field theory limit and gives rise to a Fermi-gas description of the system. It is shown on the basis of a formal expansion of simple soliton models in terms of the coupling constant why one expects mean-field theory to fail at low densities and why the corrections to mean-field theory are nonperturbative. This heuristic description is tested against an exactly solvable 1+1 dimensional model (the sine-Gordon model) and found to give the correct behavior. The relevance of these results to the program of doing nuclear physics based on soliton models is discussed. (orig.)

Quantized kernel least mean square algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Badong; Zhao, Songlin; Zhu, Pingping; Príncipe, José C

2012-01-01

In this paper, we propose a quantization approach, as an alternative of sparsification, to curb the growth of the radial basis function structure in kernel adaptive filtering. The basic idea behind this method is to quantize and hence compress the input (or feature) space. Different from sparsification, the new approach uses the "redundant" data to update the coefficient of the closest center. In particular, a quantized kernel least mean square (QKLMS) algorithm is developed, which is based on a simple online vector quantization method. The analytical study of the mean square convergence has been carried out. The energy conservation relation for QKLMS is established, and on this basis we arrive at a sufficient condition for mean square convergence, and a lower and upper bound on the theoretical value of the steady-state excess mean square error. Static function estimation and short-term chaotic time-series prediction examples are presented to demonstrate the excellent performance.

Meaning and Theme in Indian Style

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mojahed Gholami

2016-12-01

With a glimpse on what was said and a pause on the poems of Saeb Tabrizi, as one of the most seasoned poets in Indian style, it demonstrates part of his art and also illuminates the relation among word, meaning and theme in his poetry and viewpoint. He established multiple proportions among the concepts in his poem: sometimes he expressed a semantic unit as a content with diversities in word, or in some occasions, he expressed a semantic unit by different contents, with similar or dissimilar content maker elements, or even sometimes he use content maker elements for expressing multiple meanings and so on. Also it is necessary to be noted that when Saeb and the other poets of Indian style, measure the meaning by words, their meant is subjective matter and if the meaning comes with adjectives such as unfamiliar, narrow, distant, and so on, these words have used mainly in order to replace theme.

State of the science: VLED (Very Low Energy Diet) for obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Delbridge, Elizabeth; Proietto, Joseph

2006-01-01

It is often stated, "the faster you lose weight, the faster it is regained ". A review of existing literature does not support such a statement--indeed if anything the reverse is true. The origins of this erroneous view are the misconceptions that weight regain is a simple matter of bad dietary and social habits and that it takes time to change these, that physiological adaptations to rapid weight loss are different to those of gradual weight loss and that weight regain is simply due to a return to old habits. Indeed there are many advantages to rapid weight loss achieved with the use of a modern very low energy diet, including the fact that rapid weight loss is a motivating factor, that the mild ketosis that occurs not only suppresses hunger, but also slows protein loss and that adherence is easier with a structured dietary regime. VLEDs are dietary preparations that provide all nutritional requirements together with between 1845 and 3280 KJ (450 and 800 Kcal) per day. An individual takes this meal replacement three times daily as a substitute for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition, a bowl of non-starchy vegetables once daily provides some fibre and helps to satisfy the social aspect of eating. A teaspoon of oil on the vegetables contracts the gall bladder to minimise the risk of gall stone formation. Since weight loss, at whatever rate, results in physiological adaptations leading to weight regain, careful attention must be paid to the period after the VLED regime is completed. Lifestyle modification, diet and exercise are instituted optimally with behaviour modification. If, despite the subject's best efforts, weight regain occurs, an appetite suppressant is advisable to help control the drive to eat.

Differences between true mean temperatures and means calculated with four different approaches: a case study from three Croatian stations

Science.gov (United States)

Bonacci, Ognjen; Željković, Ivana

2018-01-01

Different countries use varied methods for daily mean temperature calculation. None of them assesses precisely the true daily mean temperature, which is defined as the integral of continuous temperature measurements in a day. Of special scientific as well as practical importance is to find out how temperatures calculated by different methods and approaches deviate from the true daily mean temperature. Five mean daily temperatures were calculated (T0, T1, T2, T3, T4) using five different equations. The mean of 24-h temperature observations during the calendar day is accepted to represent the true, daily mean T0. The differences Δ i between T0 and four other mean daily temperatures T1, T2, T3, and T4 were calculated and analysed. In the paper, analyses were done with hourly data measured in a period from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2014 (149,016 h, 192 months and 16 years) at three Croatian meteorological stations. The stations are situated in distinct climatological areas: Zagreb Grič in a mild climate, Zavižan in the cold mountain region and Dubrovnik in the hot Mediterranean. Influence of fog on the temperature is analysed. Special attention is given to analyses of extreme (maximum and minimum) daily differences occurred at three analysed stations. Selection of the fixed local hours, which is in use for calculation of mean daily temperature, plays a crucial role in diminishing of bias from the true daily temperature.

Psaltic Modes - Meanings and Symbolics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Domin Adam

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The Universe of Byzantine music is a profound one, that is why every side should be analysed for getting to the essence of psaltical soul of the singing. Every sign has a certain meaning, every mode has a certain composition and every singing genre is interpreted in a certain way. It is important to search and analyse the historical evolution of every of the mentioned categories for being able to form a holistic image about what Byzantine music meant and means.

Piaget's Logic of Meanings: Still Relevant Today

Science.gov (United States)

Wavering, Michael James

2011-01-01

In his last book, "Toward a Logic of Meanings" (Piaget & Garcia, 1991), Jean Piaget describes how thought can be categorized into a form of propositional logic, a logic of meanings. The intent of this article is to offer this analysis by Piaget as a means to understand the language and teaching of science. Using binary propositions, conjunctions,…

Invariance of the Cauchy mean-value expression with an application to the problem of representation of Cauchy means

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucio R. Berrone

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The notion of invariance under transformations (changes of coordinates of the Cauchy mean-value expression is introduced and then used in furnishing a suitable two-variable version of a result by L. Losonczi on equality of many-variable Cauchy means. An assessment of the methods used by Losonczi and Matkowski is made and an alternative way is proposed to solve the problem of representation of two-variable Cauchy means.

Abstinence, Sex, and Virginity: Do They Mean What We Think They Mean?

Science.gov (United States)

Hans, Jason D.; Kimberly, Claire

2011-01-01

Ambiguous definitions concerning which behaviors constitute sex, abstinence, and virginity may lead to arbitrary interpretations of meaning or miscommunication, which could be particularly problematic in health care, educational, and research contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare definitions of sex, abstinence, and…

Mean value analysis for polling systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Winands, E.M.M.; Adan, I.J.B.F.; Houtum, van G.J.J.A.N.

2005-01-01

The present paper deals with the problem of calculating mean delays in polling systems with either exhaustive or gated service. We develop a mean value analysis (MVA) to compute these delay figures. The merits of MVA are in its intrinsic simplicity and its intuitively appealing derivation. As a

Mean value analysis for polling systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Winands, E.M.M.; Adan, I.J.B.F.; Houtum, van G.J.J.A.N.

2006-01-01

The present paper deals with the problem of calculating mean delays in polling systems with either exhaustive or gated service. We develop a mean value analysis (MVA) to compute these delay figures. The merits of MVA are in its intrinsic simplicity and its intuitively appealing derivation. As a

k-Means has polynomial smoothed complexity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arthur, David; Manthey, Bodo; Röglin, Heiko; Spielman, D.A.

2009-01-01

The k-means method is one of the most widely used clustering algorithms, drawing its popularity from its speed in practice. Recently, however, it was shown to have exponential worst-case running time. In order to close the gap between practical performance and theoretical analysis, the k-means

MEANS AND METHODS OF CYBER WARFARE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dan-Iulian VOITAȘEC

2016-06-01

Full Text Available According to the Declaration of Saint Petersburg of 1868 “the only legitimate object which States should endeavor to accomplish during war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy”. Thus, International Humanitarian Law prohibits or limits the use of certain means and methods of warfare. The rapid development of technology has led to the emergence of a new dimension of warfare. The cyber aspect of armed conflict has led to the development of new means and methods of warfare. The purpose of this paper is to study how the norms of international humanitarian law apply to the means and methods of cyber warfare.

Mean associated multiplicities in deep inelastic processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzhaparidze, G.Sh.; Kiselev, A.V.; Petrov, V.A.

1982-01-01

A formula is derived for the mean hadron multiplicity in the target fragmentation range of deep inelastic scattering processes. It is shown that in the high-x region the ratio of the mean multiplicities in the current fragmentation region and in the target fragmentation region tends to unity at high energies. The mean multiplicity for the Drell-Yan process is considered

Mean associated multiplicities in deep inelastic processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzhaparidze, G.S.; Kiselev, A.V.; Petrov, V.A.

1982-01-01

A formula is derived for the mean multiplicity of hadrons in the target-fragmentation region in the process of deep inelastic scattering. It is shown that in the region of large x the ratio of the mean multiplicities in the current- and target-fragmentation regions tends to unity at high energies. The mean multiplicity in the Drell-Yan process is also discussed

Meaning and significance of

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ph D Student Roman Mihaela

2011-05-01

Full Text Available The concept of "public accountability" is a challenge for political science as a new concept in this area in full debate and developement ,both in theory and practice. This paper is a theoretical approach of displaying some definitions, relevant meanings and significance odf the concept in political science. The importance of this concept is that although originally it was used as a tool to improve effectiveness and eficiency of public governance, it has gradually become a purpose it itself. "Accountability" has become an image of good governance first in the United States of America then in the European Union.Nevertheless,the concept is vaguely defined and provides ambiguous images of good governance.This paper begins with the presentation of some general meanings of the concept as they emerge from specialized dictionaries and ancyclopaedies and continues with the meanings developed in political science. The concept of "public accontability" is rooted in economics and management literature,becoming increasingly relevant in today's political science both in theory and discourse as well as in practice in formulating and evaluating public policies. A first conclusin that emerges from, the analysis of the evolution of this term is that it requires a conceptual clarification in political science. A clear definition will then enable an appropriate model of proving the system of public accountability in formulating and assessing public policies, in order to implement a system of assessment and monitoring thereof.

Tectonics: The meaning of form

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Karl; Brandt, Per Aage

Tectonics – The meaning of form deals with one of the core topics of architecture: the relationship between form and content. In the world of architecture, form is not only made from brick, glass and wood. Form means something. When a material is processed with sufficient technical skill and insi...... perspectives. You can read the chapters in any order you like – from the beginning, end or the middle. There is no correct order. The project is methodologically inductive: the more essays you read, the broader your knowledge of tectonics get....

Evolution of meaning special handbook

CERN Document Server

Wöhlbier, Fred H

2014-01-01

The Evolution of Meaning is based upon the premise that the Universe consists of information processing events. 'Information' is to be understood here not in the bare mathematical sense, but in the full active life/observation/meaning sense. From this viewpoint, the scientific description of Nature is seen to involve not only the fabric of spacetime, material aggregates and the forces acting between them, but also various equally real and fundamental groups of laws and law-like entities, as well as the concepts of subjectivity and value-oriented essential dimensi

Neurobiology: From neurons through nonlinear dynamics to meaning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Freeman, W.J. [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

1996-12-31

That branch of semiotics called semantics deals with the relationships between meanings and representations. In my view meanings exist only in brains without representation there. A meaning is the focus of an activity pattern that may occupy the entire available brain. It is constructed by intentional action followed by learning from the consequences of the action. Communication between brains requires reciprocal construction of representations in accordance with meanings, which elicit other meanings in other brains. A representation, as a material object or process, has no meaning in itself. EEG data indicate that neural patterns of meaning occur in trajectories of discrete steps marked by cortical state transitions, served by rapid exchanges of discrete wave packets between interactive cortical domains. These wave packets are made by self-organizing dynamics that control behavior and shape the sensitivities of sensory cortices to the sequellae of actions.

Complex beta-decay schemes: Pandemonium lost and paradise regained

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Firestone, R.B.

1982-01-01

The β-decay of 145 Gd has been studied in sufficient detail for comparison with the decay of its fictional analogue Pandemonium. It is shown that > 98% of the 145 Gd decay intensity was observed. This result casts doubt on the value of decay schemes determined solely by statistical techniques. (orig.)

Regaining the Edge in Urban Education: Mathematics and Sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallon, Dennis P., Ed.

In order to remain competitive in the world economy, the United States must develop and improve mathematics and science education. Given that the future workforce in this country will be comprised largely of women and minorities, groups traditionally not entering mathematics and science careers, special recruitment and retention efforts must be…

Public health policies in Chile: seeking to regain trust

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristóbal Cuadrado

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Resumen La salud es un ámbito central en las agendas públicas. En el caso de Chile, este lugar central en las demandas ciudadanas ha venido de la mano de una creciente crítica al sistema de salud, sus actores e instituciones, al mismo tiempo en que se desenvuelve una crisis democrática y de legitimidad mayor dentro de la sociedad. El punto de partida de este análisis es la vinculación entre el escenario de crítica y descontento generalizado en la sociedad con lo que sucede en el sector salud, planteándose la interdependencia y el paralelismo entre estos distintos niveles de crisis. El análisis se articula en torno a las dimensiones de confianza y legitimidad, como elementos con potencial canalizador, tomando como marco de análisis la matriz sociopolítica. Para ello, se revisan algunos elementos conceptuales en torno a las ideas de confianza y legitimidad en las políticas públicas. El artículo se enfoca en ejemplos recientemente acaecidos relacionados con las dinámicas del sistema de salud chileno, la emergencia de las Instituciones de Salud Previsional y las lógicas de mercado en salud, pasando por la fallida reforma a la salud de la década pasada, los conflictos de interés en las políticas públicas, la pérdida de legitimidad de la autoridad sanitaria y el papel de los profesionales de salud en estos procesos. Finalmente, se plantea una discusión sobre la búsqueda de la confianza perdida como asunto central para el desarrollo futuro y la sustentabilidad de las políticas de salud.

Consciousness regained? Philosophical arguments for and against reductive physicalism.

Science.gov (United States)

Sturm, Thomas

2012-03-01

This paper is an overview of recent discussions concerning the mind-body problem, which is being addressed at the interface between philosophy and neuroscience. It focuses on phenomenal features of consciousness or "qualia," which are distinguished from various related issues. Then follows a discussion of various influential skeptical arguments that question the possibility of reductive explanations of qualia in physicalist terms: knowledge arguments, conceivability arguments, the argument of multiple realizability, and the explanatory gap argument. None of the arguments is found to be very convincing. It does not necessarily follow that reductive physicalism is the only option, but it is defensible. However, constant conceptual and methodological reflection is required, alongside ongoing research, to keep such a view free from dogmatism and naivety.

Strategy White Paper: How to Regain our Strategic Footing

Science.gov (United States)

2009-06-01

www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6040, accessed 4 Feb 2009. 60 Muhammad Abul Quasem, Salvation of the Soul and Islamic Devotions (London: Kegan Paul...impulses and the bazaars, mixing mercantile interests with religious values…to give the system a fresh, thick coat of ‘Islamic green ’ paint.”178F179 The... green ” revivalist fundamentalism. - Saudi Arabia remains a theocratic police state governed by a corrupt House of Saud— perhaps one of the most

Orphan sources: Consequences, regaining control and learning the lessons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Croft, J.R.

2001-01-01

The safety and security record of technologies that use radiation sources is adequate in most cases, but on occasions there has been a lack of appropriate controls or circumvention of those that exist, leading to radiological accidents. Particular concern rise those radiation sources that have become orphans i.e. sources that were never subject to regulatory control, or were abandoned, lost or misplaced, stolen, or removed without authorisation. These sources are likely to be found in the public domain; examples include sources that used in radiotherapy units which have been unintentionally sold as scrap metal and melted thereafter, or which have been found by unsuspecting individuals or stolen, causing serious radiation exposure of people and contamination of the human habitat

Consciousness Regained: Disentangling Mechanisms, Brain Systems, and Behavioral Responses

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Storm, J.F.; Boly, M.; Casali, A.G.; Massimini, M.; Olcese, U.; Pennartz, C.M.A.; Wilke, M.

2017-01-01

How consciousness (experience) arises from and relates to material brain processes (the "mind-body problem") has been pondered by thinkers for centuries, and is regarded as among the deepest unsolved problems in science, with wide-ranging theoretical, clinical, and ethical implications. Until the

Regaining the Square of Opposition in Formal Ontology Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nilsson, Jørgen Fischer

2014-01-01

be held simply in the case that "all P are Q" does not hold. These default rules are routinely adopted in ontology development without mentioning. Appealing to these conventions, the 4 sentence forms in the square are effectively made at disposal. We discuss a first order metalogical formalization...... of the 4 sentence forms with classes reified as individual constants elucidating the logical relationships between the sentence forms. Our formalization appeals to non-provability. Non-provability incurs non-monotonicity, implying that extension of an ontology with additional subclass relationships may...

Nonasymptotic mean-field games

KAUST Repository

Tembine, Hamidou

2014-01-01

a mean-field framework that is suitable not only for large systems but also for a small world with few number of entities. The applicability of the proposed framework is illustrated through various examples including dynamic auction with asymmetric

Meaning of counterfactual statements in quantum physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stapp, H.P.

1998-01-01

David Mermin suggests that my recent proof pertaining to quantum nonlocality is undermined by an essential ambiguity pertaining to the meaning of counterfactual statements in quantum physics. The ambiguity he cites arises from his imposition of a certain criterion for the meaningfulness of such counterfactual statements. That criterion conflates the meaning of a counterfactual statement with the details of a proof of its validity in such a way as to make the meaning of such a statement dependent upon the context in which it occurs. That dependence violates the normal demand in logic that the meaning of a statement be defined by the words in the statement itself, not by the context in which the statement occurs. My proof conforms to that normal requirement. I describe the context-independent meaning within my proof of the counterfactual statements in question. copyright 1998 American Association of Physics Teachers

Finding golden mean in a physics exercise

Science.gov (United States)

Benedetto, Elmo

2017-07-01

The golden mean is an algebraic irrational number that has captured the popular imagination and is discussed in many books. Indeed, some scientists believe that it appears in some patterns in nature, including the spiral arrangement of leaves and other plant parts. Generally, the golden mean is introduced in geometry and the textbooks give the definition showing a graphical method to determine it. In this short note, we want to find this number by studying projectile motion. This could be a way to introduce the golden mean (also said to be the golden ratio, golden section, Fidia constant, divine proportion or extreme and mean ratio) in a physics course.

Nonasymptotic mean-field games

KAUST Repository

Tembine, Hamidou

2014-01-01

propose a mean-field framework that is suitable not only for large systems but also for a small world with few number of entities. The applicability of the proposed framework is illustrated through a dynamic auction with asymmetric valuation distributions.

Mean-field models and exotic nuclei

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bender, M; Buervenich, T; Maruhn, J A; Greiner, W [Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik, Univ. Frankfurt (Germany); Rutz, K [Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik, Univ. Frankfurt (Germany); [Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung mbH, Darmstadt (Germany); Reinhard, P G [Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik, Univ. Erlangen (Germany)

1998-06-01

We discuss two widely used nuclear mean-field models, the relativistic mean-field model and the (nonrelativistic) Skyrme-Hartree-Fock model, and their capability to describe exotic nuclei. Test cases are superheavy nuclei and neutron-rich Sn isotopes. New information in this regime helps to fix hitherto loosely determined aspects of the models. (orig.)

Mean-field models and exotic nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bender, M.; Buervenich, T.; Maruhn, J.A.; Greiner, W.; Rutz, K.; Reinhard, P.G.

1998-01-01

We discuss two widely used nuclear mean-field models, the relativistic mean-field model and the (nonrelativistic) Skyrme-Hartree-Fock model, and their capability to describe exotic nuclei. Test cases are superheavy nuclei and neutron-rich Sn isotopes. New information in this regime helps to fix hitherto loosely determined aspects of the models. (orig.)

Keep Meaning in Conversational Coordination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Clare Cuffari

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Coordination is a widely employed term across recent quantitative and qualitative approaches to intersubjectivity, particularly approaches that give embodiment and enaction central explanatory roles. With a focus on linguistic and bodily coordination in conversational contexts, I review the operational meaning of coordination in recent empirical research and related theorizing of embodied intersubjectivity. This discussion articulates what must be involved in treating linguistic meaning as dynamic processes of coordination. The coordination approach presents languaging as a set of dynamic self-organizing processes and actions on multiple timescales and across multiple modalities that come about and work in certain domains (those jointly constructed in social, interactive, high-order sense-making. These processes go beyond meaning at the level that is available to first-person experience. I take one crucial consequence of this to be the ubiquitously moral nature of languaging with others. Languaging coordinates experience, among other levels of behavior and event. Ethical effort is called for by the automatic autonomy-influencing forces of languaging as coordination.

The misconception of mean-reversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eliazar, Iddo I; Cohen, Morrel H

2012-01-01

The notion of random motion in a potential well is elemental in the physical sciences and beyond. Quantitatively, this notion is described by reverting diffusions—asymptotically stationary diffusion processes which are simultaneously (i) driven toward a reversion level by a deterministic force, and (ii) perturbed off the reversion level by a random white noise. The archetypal example of reverting diffusions is the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, which is mean-reverting. In this paper we analyze reverting diffusions and establish that: (i) if the magnitude of the perturbing noise is constant then the diffusion's stationary density is unimodal and the diffusion is mode-reverting; (ii) if the magnitude of the perturbing noise is non-constant then, in general, neither is the diffusion's stationary density unimodal, nor is the diffusion mode-reverting. In the latter case we further establish a result asserting when unimodality and mode-reversion do hold. In particular, we demonstrate that the notion of mean-reversion, which is fundamental in economics and finance, is a misconception—as mean-reversion is an exception rather than the norm. (fast track communication)

Key-Phenomenon and Religious Meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lomuscio Vincenzo

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In this paper I develop a phenomenology of religious experience through the notion of keyphenomenon. My analysis moves from a general phenomenology of situation, in which we have to relate different phenomena according to a sense. What does “according to a sense” mean? My suggestion is that we should look for a relationship among these data when we find a key-phenomenon (among a series of phenomena that would enlighten all the others. This key-phenomenon would show a non-phenomenal meaning which would make all the others understandable. Each other datum, therefore, becomes the witness of invisible meaning through a key-witness. The key-phenomenon we choose determines the role (i.e., the truth of each datum within its situation. This phenomenological relationship belongs to both the sense of day-life situations, and that one of possible religious situations. If the religious interpretation of a situation depends on our choice of key-phenomenon, or key-witness, we have to define what kind of keyphenomenon constitutes a religious intuition.

Magnetic cushioning and pressure applying means

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Turner, G.F.A.M.

1981-01-01

This invention relates to a novel cushioning and pressure applying means for compressing sheets of film in an X-ray cassette. The cushioning means is provided by two sheets of rubber or plastics material each of which contains an array of magnets, the sheets being held together so that like magnetic poles are in opposition. (author)

Multiperiod Mean-Variance Portfolio Optimization via Market Cloning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ankirchner, Stefan; Dermoune, Azzouz

2011-01-01

The problem of finding the mean variance optimal portfolio in a multiperiod model can not be solved directly by means of dynamic programming. In order to find a solution we therefore first introduce independent market clones having the same distributional properties as the original market, and we replace the portfolio mean and variance by their empirical counterparts. We then use dynamic programming to derive portfolios maximizing a weighted sum of the empirical mean and variance. By letting the number of market clones converge to infinity we are able to solve the original mean variance problem.

Multiperiod Mean-Variance Portfolio Optimization via Market Cloning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ankirchner, Stefan, E-mail: ankirchner@hcm.uni-bonn.de [Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet Bonn, Institut fuer Angewandte Mathematik, Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (Germany); Dermoune, Azzouz, E-mail: Azzouz.Dermoune@math.univ-lille1.fr [Universite des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, Laboratoire Paul Painleve UMR CNRS 8524 (France)

2011-08-15

The problem of finding the mean variance optimal portfolio in a multiperiod model can not be solved directly by means of dynamic programming. In order to find a solution we therefore first introduce independent market clones having the same distributional properties as the original market, and we replace the portfolio mean and variance by their empirical counterparts. We then use dynamic programming to derive portfolios maximizing a weighted sum of the empirical mean and variance. By letting the number of market clones converge to infinity we are able to solve the original mean variance problem.

Levels of Literary Meaning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Klausen, Søren Harnow

2017-01-01

I argue that intentionalist theories of meaning and interpretation, like those of Hirsch and Juhl, have been insufficiently attentive to the different levels of authorial intention that are operative in literary works. By countenancing intentions on different levels – ranging from simple semantic...

Probe train including a flaw detector and a radiation responsive recording means with alignment means having a natural curved cast

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stone, R.M.

1975-01-01

An inspection system for a multitube steam generator comprising a probe train for insertion in a tube to be inspected is described. The probe train includes, in series, directional probe means, such as an eddy current probe, for indicating the longitudinal and angular location of an irregularity at or in the wall of the tube, and radiation responsive recording means nonrotatable relative to the eddy current probe during operation and in substantially close longitudinal relationship thereto for receiving an image of the irregularity when laterally adjacent thereto; elongated alignment means joined to at least one end of the probe train against rotation relative thereto and insertable in the tube for controlling or determining the angular orientation of the probe train within the tube; means for propelling the probe train longitudinally within the tube; and a source of radiation insertable in another tube of the steam generator to a position therealong laterally adjacent the indicated irregularity for irradiation of the irregularity to project said image on the recording means. The directional probe means may preferably be an eddy current probe and the radiation responsive recording means may preferably be a film bearing cassette probe. The alignment means may be provided by a resilient naturally curved plastic cable, which cable might also be used to propel the probe train. (auth)

Gas measuring apparatus with standardization means, and method therefor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Typpo, P.M.

1980-01-01

An apparatus and a method for standardizing a gas measuring device has a source capable of emitting a beam of radiation aligned to impinge a detector. A housing means encloses the beam. The housing means has a plurality of apertures permitting the gas to enter the housing means, to intercept the beam, and to exit from the housing means. The device further comprises means for closing the apertures and a means for purging said gas from the housing means

Meaning and the English verb

CERN Document Server

Leech, Geoffrey

2014-01-01

Every language has its peculiar problems of meaning for the foreign learner. In the English language, some of the biggest yet most fascinating problems are concentrated in the area of the finite verb phrase: in particular, tense, aspect, mood and modality. Meaning and the English Verb describes these fields in detail for teachers and advanced students of English as a foreign or second language. This new third edition uses up-to-date examples to show differences and similarities between American and British english, reflecting a great deal of recent research in this area. It also takes account

The Meaning(s) of Teacher Leadership in an Urban High School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Scribner, Samantha M. Paredes; Bradley-Levine, Jill

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of teacher leadership from teachers' perspectives. The authors examine teachers' practice of and talk about legitimate sources of power and influence in the context of an urban high school reform. Design: This is an interpretive study of teacher leadership situated in one small high…

Multimodality, creativity and children's meaning-making: Drawings ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Multimodality, creativity and children's meaning-making: Drawings, writings, imaginings. ... Framed by social semiotic theories of communication, multimodal ... to create imaginary worlds and express meanings according to their interests.

Improved Performance of Unsupervised Method by Renovated K-Means

OpenAIRE

Ashok, P.; Nawaz, G. M Kadhar; Elayaraja, E.; Vadivel, V.

2013-01-01

Clustering is a separation of data into groups of similar objects. Every group called cluster consists of objects that are similar to one another and dissimilar to objects of other groups. In this paper, the K-Means algorithm is implemented by three distance functions and to identify the optimal distance function for clustering methods. The proposed K-Means algorithm is compared with K-Means, Static Weighted K-Means (SWK-Means) and Dynamic Weighted K-Means (DWK-Means) algorithm by using Davis...

Losing a child: finding meaning in bereavement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia Bogensperger

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Confronting the loss of a loved one leads us to the core questions of human existence. Bereaved parents have to deal with the rupture of a widely shared concept of what is perceived to be the natural course of life and are forced into meaning reconstruction. Objective: This study aims to expand upon existing work concerning specific themes of meaning reconstruction in a sample of bereaved parents. More specifically, the relationship between meaning reconstruction, complicated grief, and posttraumatic growth was analyzed, with special attention focused on traumatic and unexpected losses. Method: In a mixed methods approach, themes of meaning reconstruction (sense-making and benefit-finding were assessed in in-depth interviews with a total of 30 bereaved parents. Posttraumatic growth and complicated grief were assessed using standardized questionnaires, and qualitative and quantitative results were then merged using data transformation methods. Results: In total 42 themes of meaning reconstruction were abstracted from oral material. It was shown that sense-making themes ranged from causal explanations to complex philosophical beliefs about life and death. Benefit-finding themes contained thoughts about personal improvement as well as descriptions about social actions. Significant correlations were found between the extent of sense-making and posttraumatic growth scores (rs=0.54, rs=0.49; p<0.01, especially when the death was traumatic or unexpected (rs=0.67, rs=0.63; p<0.01. However, analysis revealed no significant correlation with complicated grief. Overall results corroborate meaning reconstruction themes and the importance of meaning reconstruction for posttraumatic growth.

Does making meaning make it better? Narrative meaning-making and well-being in at-risk African-American adolescent females

Science.gov (United States)

Sales, Jessica M.; Merrill, Natalie A.; Fivush, Robyn

2012-01-01

It has been argued that, for certain people, attempts at making meaning about past life events, especially challenging events, might be detrimental to well-being. In this study we explored the association between narrative indicators of meaning-making and psychological well-being, while also considering the role of individual level factors such as life history, personality characteristics and locus of control, among an at-risk sample of low socioeconomic status inner-city African-American adolescent females with challenging lives. We found that having a more external locus of control and including more cognitive processing language in narratives about a highly negative past experience were associated with increased depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that certain types of narrative meaning-making language may reflect ongoing and unsuccessful efforts after meaning, and, may be more similar to rumination than to resolution. Additionally, they support claims that for certain individuals from challenging backgrounds, efforts after meaning might not be psychologically healthy. PMID:22897108

Elastic K-means using posterior probability.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Aihua; Jiang, Bo; Li, Yan; Zhang, Xuehan; Ding, Chris

2017-01-01

The widely used K-means clustering is a hard clustering algorithm. Here we propose a Elastic K-means clustering model (EKM) using posterior probability with soft capability where each data point can belong to multiple clusters fractionally and show the benefit of proposed Elastic K-means. Furthermore, in many applications, besides vector attributes information, pairwise relations (graph information) are also available. Thus we integrate EKM with Normalized Cut graph clustering into a single clustering formulation. Finally, we provide several useful matrix inequalities which are useful for matrix formulations of learning models. Based on these results, we prove the correctness and the convergence of EKM algorithms. Experimental results on six benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed EKM and its integrated model.

The wall/ ruin: meaning and memory in landscape

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caroline Lavoie

1997-03-01

Full Text Available The view of physical space as functional is in conflict with a view of space that is determined imaginatively by memory and metaphor. This paper examines the contemporary conception of space (that is, space conceived purely as a scientific phenomenon and demonstrates its inadequacies and limitations. The conception of space as functional is a remnant of our positivistic heritage which seems to leave no room for any deeper meaning. Accordingly, the concepts of meaning, truth, and legitimation (that is, empirical explanation or the generating of laws are closely related to one another and to the procedures governing scientific activity. Thus, science becomes the model for meaning, truth and legitimation in all areas, including design and art. This is one side of the false dichotomy I reject. To me, it is a reductionistic and impoverished conception of meaning, truth and legitimation-one that simply begs the question against other conceptions. The result of this perspective ('scientism' has been an impoverishment of our culture, particularly in the area of landscape design. The other side of this dichotomy is equally unsatisfying. The postmodernist, following Derrida, rejects this reductionistic conception of meaning, but in doing so undermines their own position. For Derrida, words 'have multiple meanings ... they thus possess potential excess meanings ... Language always means more than it may be taken to mean in anyone context' (Lye 1993, p.91. His emphasis on meaning as determined only in relation to other words, and his attempt to eliminate metaphysical notions like representation and absolute meaning, creates an illusion of instability which can lead to a paralysing ambiguity (Stephens 1994. The totality of meaning becomes inaccessible. One can never have more than an inadequate and approximate grasp of meaning. In Derrida's scheme, meaning is nothing more than textual relationships with no connection or grounding outside of the text itself

Calculation of the mean force constants of the rare gases and the rectilinear law of mean force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, M.W.; Bigeleisen, J.

1977-01-01

The mean energies, (U), and the mean force constants, (nabla 2 U), have been calculated for liquid argon and liquid krypton using the WCA perturbation theory, and for gaseous argon and krypton along the coexistence line by solution of the PY equation for the radial distribution function. Calculations have been made for the Lennard-Jones, Barker-Henderson, and Maitland-Smith potentials. There is little difference in the values of (U) and (nabla 2 U) calculated for the three potentials. The calculated values are in good agreement with experimental data. Correlation of the calculated values of (nabla 2 U) for the liquid and gas leads to an empirical relationship between (nabla 2 U) and the density of the phase along the coexistence line. When the latter is combined with the law of rectilinear diameters of the density, the rectilinear law of mean force is obtained, which is in good agreement with experimental data on argon. It is shown that the scaling exponent for the mean force constant, (nabla 2 U)/sub l/-(nabla 2 U)/sub g/, is larger than the scaling exponent of the density below the critical temperature and becomes equal to it at the critical temperature. The rationale for the rectilinear law of mean force is provided by an expansion of the radial distribution function of the liquid in powers of the density and the use of the WCA approximation to the radial distribution function

Tema 2: Ethel and her Telenoid: Toward using humanoids to alleviate symptoms of dementia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jens Dinesen Strandbech

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This article elaborates on a longitudinal study investigating if conversations with the teleoperated humanoid robot Telenoid can alleviate symptoms of dementia. The article initially frames Telenoid in the field of social robotics and relevant dementia-initiatives before dwelling on the emerging relationship between Telenoid and a person with severe dementia. Here it is shown how persons with severe dementia can benefit greatly from interaction with Functionally Designed Anthropomorphic Robots such as Telenoid as a means of providing a temporary ‘conversational stepping stone’, working toward improving quality of life and regaining conversational and social confidence to seek and interact socially with others.

Dynamical Predictability of Monthly Means.

Science.gov (United States)

Shukla, J.

1981-12-01

We have attempted to determine the theoretical upper limit of dynamical predictability of monthly means for prescribed nonfluctuating external forcings. We have extended the concept of `classical' predictability, which primarily refers to the lack of predictability due mainly to the instabilities of synoptic-scale disturbances, to the predictability of time averages, which are determined by the predictability of low-frequency planetary waves. We have carded out 60-day integrations of a global general circulation model with nine different initial conditions but identical boundary conditions of sea surface temperature, snow, sea ice and soil moisture. Three of these initial conditions are the observed atmospheric conditions on 1 January of 1975, 1976 and 1977. The other six initial conditions are obtained by superimposing over the observed initial conditions a random perturbation comparable to the errors of observation. The root-mean-square (rms) error of random perturbations at all the grid points and all the model levels is 3 m s1 in u and v components of wind. The rms vector wind error between the observed initial conditions is >15 m s1.It is hypothesized that for a given averaging period, if the rms error among the time averages predicted from largely different initial conditions becomes comparable to the rms error among the time averages predicted from randomly perturbed initial conditions, the time averages are dynamically unpredictable. We have carried out the analysis of variance to compare the variability, among the three groups, due to largely different initial conditions, and within each group due to random perturbations.It is found that the variances among the first 30-day means, predicted from largely different initial conditions, are significantly different from the variances due to random perturbations in the initial conditions, whereas the variances among 30-day means for days 31-60 are not distinguishable from the variances due to random initial

PR Means Positive Results.

Science.gov (United States)

Foree, Marilyn

1992-01-01

Describes the advantages of public relations to a school music program. Suggests that, to succeed, a music program must have the support of school administrators, teachers, parents, and students alike. Recommends means of attracting support from the four groups. Stresses the importance of effective local publicity. (SG)

Meaning construction in remembering

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wagoner, Brady

2011-01-01

F.C. Bartlett and L.S.Vygotsky were two seminal figures in the psychological study of remembering. Both emphasized the role of meaning and imagination in this process. Bartlett did this by showing the systematic and holistic changes that ensue when cultural material is repeatedly reproduced outsi...

Comparison of K-means and fuzzy c-means algorithm performance for automated determination of the arterial input function.

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Jiandong; Sun, Hongzan; Yang, Jiawen; Guo, Qiyong

2014-01-01

The arterial input function (AIF) plays a crucial role in the quantification of cerebral perfusion parameters. The traditional method for AIF detection is based on manual operation, which is time-consuming and subjective. Two automatic methods have been reported that are based on two frequently used clustering algorithms: fuzzy c-means (FCM) and K-means. However, it is still not clear which is better for AIF detection. Hence, we compared the performance of these two clustering methods using both simulated and clinical data. The results demonstrate that K-means analysis can yield more accurate and robust AIF results, although it takes longer to execute than the FCM method. We consider that this longer execution time is trivial relative to the total time required for image manipulation in a PACS setting, and is acceptable if an ideal AIF is obtained. Therefore, the K-means method is preferable to FCM in AIF detection.

Mean-field approximation minimizes relative entropy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bilbro, G.L.; Snyder, W.E.; Mann, R.C.

1991-01-01

The authors derive the mean-field approximation from the information-theoretic principle of minimum relative entropy instead of by minimizing Peierls's inequality for the Weiss free energy of statistical physics theory. They show that information theory leads to the statistical mechanics procedure. As an example, they consider a problem in binary image restoration. They find that mean-field annealing compares favorably with the stochastic approach

Parallel k-means++ for Multiple Shared-Memory Architectures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mackey, Patrick S.; Lewis, Robert R.

2016-09-22

In recent years k-means++ has become a popular initialization technique for improved k-means clustering. To date, most of the work done to improve its performance has involved parallelizing algorithms that are only approximations of k-means++. In this paper we present a parallelization of the exact k-means++ algorithm, with a proof of its correctness. We develop implementations for three distinct shared-memory architectures: multicore CPU, high performance GPU, and the massively multithreaded Cray XMT platform. We demonstrate the scalability of the algorithm on each platform. In addition we present a visual approach for showing which platform performed k-means++ the fastest for varying data sizes.

Obstacle mean-field game problem

KAUST Repository

Gomes, Diogo A.; Patrizi, Stefania

2015-01-01

In this paper, we introduce and study a first-order mean-field game obstacle problem. We examine the case of local dependence on the measure under assumptions that include both the logarithmic case and power-like nonlinearities. Since the obstacle operator is not differentiable, the equations for first-order mean field game problems have to be discussed carefully. Hence, we begin by considering a penalized problem. We prove this problem admits a unique solution satisfying uniform bounds. These bounds serve to pass to the limit in the penalized problem and to characterize the limiting equations. Finally, we prove uniqueness of solutions. © European Mathematical Society 2015.

Clustering Using Boosted Constrained k-Means Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masayuki Okabe

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This article proposes a constrained clustering algorithm with competitive performance and less computation time to the state-of-the-art methods, which consists of a constrained k-means algorithm enhanced by the boosting principle. Constrained k-means clustering using constraints as background knowledge, although easy to implement and quick, has insufficient performance compared with metric learning-based methods. Since it simply adds a function into the data assignment process of the k-means algorithm to check for constraint violations, it often exploits only a small number of constraints. Metric learning-based methods, which exploit constraints to create a new metric for data similarity, have shown promising results although the methods proposed so far are often slow depending on the amount of data or number of feature dimensions. We present a method that exploits the advantages of the constrained k-means and metric learning approaches. It incorporates a mechanism for accepting constraint priorities and a metric learning framework based on the boosting principle into a constrained k-means algorithm. In the framework, a metric is learned in the form of a kernel matrix that integrates weak cluster hypotheses produced by the constrained k-means algorithm, which works as a weak learner under the boosting principle. Experimental results for 12 data sets from 3 data sources demonstrated that our method has performance competitive to those of state-of-the-art constrained clustering methods for most data sets and that it takes much less computation time. Experimental evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of controlling the constraint priorities by using the boosting principle and that our constrained k-means algorithm functions correctly as a weak learner of boosting.

Embodying Meaning: Qualities, Feelings, Selective Attention, and Habits

Science.gov (United States)

Andersson, Joacim; Garrison, Jim

2016-01-01

Recently, there has been increasing pedagogical interest in the qualities and characteristics of movement. This article examines these qualities and characteristics in terms of John Dewey's distinction between abstract, linguistic "significant" meanings and concrete, embodied "imminent" meanings. Imminent meanings are comprised…

The meaning of talent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raquel Lorenzo

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The knowledge society gives a remarkable role to human potentialities into organizations. For this reason has emerged talent management. But it is necessary to know its meaning to put on practice programs. In this paper, the author analyzes different points of views about this topic.

Monstrosity by Monstrous Means

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Post, Hans Christian

2016-01-01

The Cambodian memorials to the Cambodian genocide between 1975 and 1979 can in numerous ways be termed monstrous. Not so much in that they deal with atrocities monstrous in scale and character, as in the monstrous visual means they employ and the imprecise, monster-ridden explanations they delive...

Subspace K-means clustering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Timmerman, Marieke E.; Ceulemans, Eva; De Roover, Kim; Van Leeuwen, Karla

2013-01-01

To achieve an insightful clustering of multivariate data, we propose subspace K-means. Its central idea is to model the centroids and cluster residuals in reduced spaces, which allows for dealing with a wide range of cluster types and yields rich interpretations of the clusters. We review the

Networks and knowledge creation for meaning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brink, Tove

2016-01-01

. The findings show that business networks provide an important frame for organising both central- and distributed leadership to provide meaning on all levels of the network organisations. The business network consists of customers, suppliers and business partners for support of reciprocal learning for providing......The research in this paper reveals how business networks can create organisational knowledge to provide meaning for enabling innovation and reduction of Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE)? The research was conducted from June 2014 to May 2015, using a qualitative deductive research approach...... and due to the organising process highly valuable findings regarding innovation can be utilised both for improved central decisions and for improved application of knowledge locally when the meaning is established. Further research is needed for elaboration of the business network frame and the organising...

''Physics as meaning circuit'': three problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wheeler, J.A.

1986-01-01

This paper presents the ''meaning circuit.'' Physics gives light and sound and pressure, tools of communication. It gives biology and chemistry and, through them, communicators. Communication between communicators gives meaning. Meaning calls for the asking of questions, but the asking of one question stands in a complementary relation in the asking of another. The reception of an answer demands distinguishability. Mathematical analysis of distinguishability demands probability amplitudes. Complementarity demands that these probability amplitudes be complex. A complex probability amplitude has a phase. The change of phase around a closed loop can be regarded as the definition and measure and even the sole form of existence of the ''flux of field'' through that loop. Fields so defined -- electrodynamic, geometrodynamic and chromodynamic -- give rise to particles and physics, thus closing the circuit

Self-management strategies used by 'high functioning' individuals with bipolar disorder: from research to clinical practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Greg; Suto, Melinda; Hole, Rachelle; Hale, Sandra; Amari, Erica; Michalak, Erin E

2011-01-01

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex mental illness that results in substantial costs, both at a personal and societal level. Research into BD has been driven by a strongly medical model conception, with a focus upon pathology and dysfunction. Little research to date has focused upon strategies used to maintain or regain wellness in BD. Here, we present results from a qualitative study of self-management strategies used by a Canadian sample of 'high-functioning' individuals with BD. The aims of the present paper are two-fold: (1) To provide a description of the self-management strategies identified as effective by this sample of high functioning individuals and 2) to explore these results from a clinical perspective. High functioning (determined as a score of either 1 or 2 on the objectively-rated Multidimensional Scale of Independent Functioning) individuals with BD type I or II (N = 33) completed quantitative scales to assess depression, mania, psychosocial functioning and quality of life, and underwent either an individual interview or focus group about the self-management strategies they used to maintain or regain wellness. The specific self-management strategies that individuals enacted are contained within the following categories: (1) sleep, diet, rest and exercise; (2) ongoing monitoring; (3) reflective and meditative practices; (4) understanding BD and educating others; (5) connecting to others and (6) enacting a plan. These strategies are discussed in the context of current treatment interventions and research findings, offering clinicians a broad range of potential techniques or tools to assist with their efforts to support individuals with BD in maintaining or regaining wellness. The strategies adopted by a sample of people coping well with their BD show remarkable overlap with the targets of existing adjunctive psychosocial interventions for BD. The clinician can use this information to motivate clients to engage with such strategies. The present

The Classification of Diabetes Mellitus Using Kernel k-means

Science.gov (United States)

Alamsyah, M.; Nafisah, Z.; Prayitno, E.; Afida, A. M.; Imah, E. M.

2018-01-01

Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disorder which is characterized by chronicle hypertensive glucose. Automatics detection of diabetes mellitus is still challenging. This study detected diabetes mellitus by using kernel k-Means algorithm. Kernel k-means is an algorithm which was developed from k-means algorithm. Kernel k-means used kernel learning that is able to handle non linear separable data; where it differs with a common k-means. The performance of kernel k-means in detecting diabetes mellitus is also compared with SOM algorithms. The experiment result shows that kernel k-means has good performance and a way much better than SOM.

Reducing the time requirement of k-means algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Osamor, Victor Chukwudi; Adebiyi, Ezekiel Femi; Oyelade, Jelilli Olarenwaju; Doumbia, Seydou

2012-01-01

Traditional k-means and most k-means variants are still computationally expensive for large datasets, such as microarray data, which have large datasets with large dimension size d. In k-means clustering, we are given a set of n data points in d-dimensional space R(d) and an integer k. The problem is to determine a set of k points in R(d), called centers, so as to minimize the mean squared distance from each data point to its nearest center. In this work, we develop a novel k-means algorithm, which is simple but more efficient than the traditional k-means and the recent enhanced k-means. Our new algorithm is based on the recently established relationship between principal component analysis and the k-means clustering. We provided the correctness proof for this algorithm. Results obtained from testing the algorithm on three biological data and six non-biological data (three of these data are real, while the other three are simulated) also indicate that our algorithm is empirically faster than other known k-means algorithms. We assessed the quality of our algorithm clusters against the clusters of a known structure using the Hubert-Arabie Adjusted Rand index (ARI(HA)). We found that when k is close to d, the quality is good (ARI(HA)>0.8) and when k is not close to d, the quality of our new k-means algorithm is excellent (ARI(HA)>0.9). In this paper, emphases are on the reduction of the time requirement of the k-means algorithm and its application to microarray data due to the desire to create a tool for clustering and malaria research. However, the new clustering algorithm can be used for other clustering needs as long as an appropriate measure of distance between the centroids and the members is used. This has been demonstrated in this work on six non-biological data.

Improving working memory performance in brain-injured patients using hypnotic suggestion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindeløv, Jonas K.; Overgaard, Rikke; Overgaard, Morten

2017-01-01

be effectively restored by suggesting to hypnotized patients that they have regained their pre-injury level of working memory functioning. Following four 1-h sessions, 27 patients had a medium-sized improvement relative to 22 active controls (Bayes factors of 342 and 37.5 on the two aggregate outcome measures...... group was crossed over to the working memory suggestion and showed superior improvement. By the end of the study, both groups reached a performance level at or above the healthy population mean with standardized mean differences between 1.55 and 2.03 relative to the passive control group. We conclude...... that, if framed correctly, hypnotic suggestion can effectively improve working memory following acquired brain injury. The speed and consistency with which this improvement occurred, indicate that there may be a residual capacity for normal information processing in the injured brain....

Long-Term Weight Maintenance after a 17-Week Weight Loss Intervention with or without a One-Year Maintenance Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tuula Pekkarinen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Weight lost by obese patients is almost always regained over time. Extended treatment may improve maintenance, but solid evidence is lacking. Purpose. We determined effectiveness of maintenance therapy after a weight loss program. Methods. Together 201 patients (mean age 47 years and BMI 42 kg/m2, 71% women were randomly assigned to either a 17-week weight loss program followed by a one-year maintenance program or to a weight loss program without subsequent maintenance intervention. The weight loss program included behavior modification and a very-low-calorie diet, and maintenance program behavior modification. The primary outcome measure was percentage of patients with 5% or more weight loss at the end of maintenance (week 69 and one year later (week 121. Secondary outcomes were weight related changes in lifestyle and quality of life. Results. At week 69, 52% of the patients with and 44% of those without maintenance program had lost weight ≥5%, P=0.40, and, at week 121, 33% and 34%, P=0.77, respectively. At week 121 secondary outcomes did not differ between the groups among those successfully followed up. Conclusions. This one-year maintenance program was not effective in preventing weight regain in severely obese patients. Trial Registration. This trial is registered under clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00590655.

A randomized pilot study comparing zero-calorie alternate-day fasting to daily caloric restriction in adults with obesity

Science.gov (United States)

Catenacci, Victoria A.; Pan, Zhaoxing; Ostendorf, Danielle; Brannon, Sarah; Gozansky, Wendolyn S.; Mattson, Mark P.; Martin, Bronwen; MacLean, Paul S.; Melanson, Edward L.; Donahoo, William Troy

2016-01-01

Objective To evaluate the safety and tolerability of alternate-day fasting (ADF) and to compare changes in weight, body composition, lipids, and insulin sensitivity index (Si) to those produced by a standard weight loss diet, moderate daily caloric restriction (CR). Methods Adults with obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2, age 18-55) were randomized to either zero-calorie ADF (n=14) or CR (-400 kcal/day, n=12) for 8 weeks. Outcomes were measured at the end of the 8-week intervention and after 24 weeks of unsupervised follow-up. Results No adverse effects were attributed to ADF and 93% completed the 8-week ADF protocol. At 8 weeks, ADF achieved a 376 kcal/day greater energy deficit, however there were no significant between-group differences in change in weight (mean±SE; ADF -8.2±0.9 kg, CR -7.1±1.0 kg), body composition, lipids, or Si. After 24 weeks of unsupervised follow-up, there were no significant differences in weight regain, however changes from baseline in % fat mass and lean mass were more favorable in ADF. Conclusions ADF is a safe and tolerable approach to weight loss. ADF produced similar changes in weight, body composition, lipids and Si at 8 weeks and did not appear to increase risk for weight regain 24 weeks after completing the intervention. PMID:27569118

Vertebral stabilization using positively threaded profile pins and polymethylmethacrylate, with or without laminectomy, for spinal canal stenosis and vertebral instability caused by congenital thoracic vertebral anomalies.

Science.gov (United States)

Aikawa, Takeshi; Kanazono, Shinichi; Yoshigae, Yuki; Sharp, Nicholas J H; Muñana, Karen R

2007-07-01

To describe diagnostic findings, surgical technique, and outcome in dogs with thoracic spinal canal stenosis and vertebral instability secondary to congenital vertebral anomalies. Retrospective clinical study. Dogs (n=9) with thoracic spinal canal stenosis. Medical records (1995-1996; 2000-2006) of 9 dogs with a myelographic diagnosis of spinal canal stenosis and/or vertebral instability secondary to congenital vertebral anomaly that were surgically managed by vertebral stabilization with or without laminectomy were reviewed. Data on pre- and postoperative neurologic status, diagnostic findings, surgical techniques, and outcomes were retrieved. Follow-up evaluations were performed at 1, 2, and 6 months. Long-term outcome was assessed by means of clinical examination or owner telephone interviews. Spinal cord compression was confirmed by myelography, and in 2 dogs, dynamic compression by stress myelography. Eight dogs regained the ability to ambulate postoperatively. One dog with a partial recovery regained voluntary movement but did not become ambulatory. Spinal cord injury secondary to congenital vertebral anomaly may have a good outcome when treated by vertebral stabilization with or without laminectomy. Adequate stabilization of the vertebrae and improved neurologic outcome were achieved in most dogs. Vertebral stabilization using positively threaded profile pins and polymethylmethacrylate with or without laminectomy is an effective treatment for spinal canal stenosis and vertebral instability secondary to congenital thoracic vertebral anomalies.

Mean associative multiplicities in deep inelastic processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzhaparidze, G.Sh.; Kiselev, A.V.; Petrov, V.A.

1981-01-01

The associative hadron multiplicities in deep inelastic and Drell--Yan processes are studied. In particular the mean multiplicities in different hard processes in QCD are found to be determined by the mean multiplicity in parton jet [ru

Meaning making in cancer survivors: a focus group study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadia van der Spek

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Confrontation with a life-threatening disease like cancer can evoke existential distress, which can trigger a search for meaning in people after having survived this disease. METHODS: In an effort to gain more insight in the meaning making process, we conducted four focus groups with 23 cancer survivors on this topic. Participants responded to questions about experienced meaning making, perceived changes in meaning making after cancer and the perceived need for help in this area. RESULTS: Most frequently mentioned meaning making themes were relationships and experiences. We found that, in general, cancer survivors experienced enhanced meaning after cancer through relationships, experiences, resilience, goal-orientation and leaving a legacy. Some participants, however, also said to have (also experienced a loss of meaning in their lives through experiences, social roles, relationships and uncertainties about the future. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that there is a group of cancer survivors that has succeeded in meaning making efforts, and experienced sometimes even more meaning in life than before diagnosis, while there is also a considerable group of survivors that struggled with meaning making and has an unmet need for help with that. The results of this study contribute to develop a meaning centered intervention for cancer survivors.

Discrete and continuous time dynamic mean-variance analysis

OpenAIRE

Reiss, Ariane

1999-01-01

Contrary to static mean-variance analysis, very few papers have dealt with dynamic mean-variance analysis. Here, the mean-variance efficient self-financing portfolio strategy is derived for n risky assets in discrete and continuous time. In the discrete setting, the resulting portfolio is mean-variance efficient in a dynamic sense. It is shown that the optimal strategy for n risky assets may be dominated if the expected terminal wealth is constrained to exactly attain a certain goal instead o...

Mean-field theory of nuclear structure and dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Negele, J.W.

1982-01-01

The physical and theoretical foundations are presented for the mean-field theory of nuclear structure and dynamics. Salient features of the many-body theory of stationary states are reviewed to motivate the time-dependent mean-field approximation. The time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximation and its limitations are discussed and general theoretical formulations are presented which yield time-dependent mean-field equations in lowest approximation and provide suitable frameworks for overcoming various conceptual and practical limitations of the mean-field theory. Particular emphasis is placed on recent developments utilizing functional integral techniques to obtain a quantum mean-field theory applicable to quantized eigenstates, spontaneous fission, the nuclear partition function, and scattering problems. Applications to a number of simple, idealized systems are presented to verify the approximations for solvable problems and to elucidate the essential features of mean-field dynamics. Finally, calculations utilizing moderately realistic geometries and interactions are reviewed which address heavy-ion collisions, fusion, strongly damped collisions, and fission

[Development of meaning in life scale II].

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Soon-Ock; Kim, Sook-Nam; Shin, Kyung-Il; Lee, Jong-Ji

2005-08-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a meaning of life scale with high validity and reliability. A conceptual framework composed of 4 phases of meanings of life was identified. And 49 preliminary items on a 4-points scale were developed through content validity. A reliability and validity test of the 49 items was conducted on 564 adults. By means of internal consistency of the 49 items, 1 item was deleted. To verify the 48 items, factor analysis, reliability test, and LISEREL were done. Through exploratory factor analysis of the 48 items, 8 factors were extracted. These factors were labeled as 'self- awareness and self-acceptance', 'hope', 'responsibility awareness', 'love experience', 'self transcendence', 'relation experience', 'self contentedness', and 'Commitment'. Through LISEREL of the 48 items, 2 items were excluded and finally 46 items remained. Cronbach's Alpha of the 46 items was .94. The correlation coefficient of the Self-esteem scale was .79. By the above results, the researchers recommend the following: An exploratory study on the variables related to the meaning of life are needed for criterion validity of this scale. Studies on meaning of life of different group, and subjects are needed for reverification.

i=0 (Information has no intrinsic meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F.J. Miller

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This paper was written mainly to help identify some contradictions that can be found in the notion of knowledge management though its application is wider-ranging. The author suggests that knowledge - that is to say 'what we know' - can scarcely be understood and managed even by ourselves, much less by means of sophisticated information and communications (ie groupware and shareware technologies. We have progressed from the industrial age through the information age into what is being promoted as the 'golden age' of knowledge and, in the process, we've been led to believe that information contains meaning - rather than just standing for, provoking or evoking meaning in others. The paper argues that unless we take the trouble to face and understand the significance and implications of i=0 (ie that information has no intrinsic meaning and that knowledge is the uniquely human capability of making meaning from information - ideally in face-to-face relationships with other human beings - we may never emerge into any 'golden' age at all! The consequences of i=0 for communications, learning, safety, quality, management (itself, and winning work are also discussed.

Implementasi KD-Tree K-Means Clustering untuk Klasterisasi Dokumen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Budiman Gosno

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Klasterisasi dokumen adalah suatu proses pengelompokan dokumen secara otomatis dan unsupervised. Klasterisasi dokumen merupakan permasalahan yang sering ditemui dalam berbagai bidang seperti text mining dan sistem temu kembali informasi. Metode klasterisasi dokumen yang memiliki akurasi dan efisiensi waktu yang tinggi sangat diperlukan untuk meningkatkan hasil pada mesin pencari web,  dan untuk proses filtering. Salah satu metode klasterisasi yang telah dikenal dan diaplikasikan dalam klasterisasi dokumen adalah K-Means Clustering. Tetapi K-Means Clustering sensitif terhadap pemilihan posisi awal dari titik tengah klaster sehingga pemilihan posisi awal dari titik tengah klaster yang buruk akan mengakibatkan K-Means Clustering terjebak dalam local optimum. KD-Tree K-Means Clustering merupakan perbaikan dari K-Means Clustering. KD-Tree K-Means Clustering menggunakan struktur data K-Dimensional Tree dan nilai kerapatan pada proses inisialisasi titik tengah klaster. Pada makalah ini diimplementasikan algoritma KD-Tree K-Means Clustering untuk permasalahan klasterisasi dokumen. Performa klasterisasi dokumen yang dihasilkan oleh metode KD-Tree K-Means Clustering pada data set 20 newsgroup memiliki nilai distorsi 3×105 lebih rendah dibandingkan dengan nilai rerata distorsi K-Means Clustering dan nilai NIG 0,09 lebih baik dibandingkan dengan nilai NIG K-Means Clustering.

Mental maps and travel behaviour: Meanings and models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hannes, E.; Kusumastuti, Diana; Espinosa, M.L.; Janssens, D.; Vanhoof, K.; Wets, G.

2012-01-01

In this paper, the “mental map” concept is positioned with regard to individual travel behaviour to start with. Based on Ogden and Richards’ triangle of meaning (The meaning of meaning: a study of the influence of language upon thought and of the science of symbolism. International library of

Single pass kernel k-means clustering method

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

In unsupervised classification, kernel -means clustering method has been shown to perform better than conventional -means clustering method in ... 518501, India; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Anantapur College of Engineering, Anantapur 515002, India ...

Linear Quadratic Mean Field Type Control and Mean Field Games with Common Noise, with Application to Production of an Exhaustible Resource

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Graber, P. Jameson, E-mail: jameson-graber@baylor.edu [Baylor University, Department of Mathematics (United States)

2016-12-15

We study a general linear quadratic mean field type control problem and connect it to mean field games of a similar type. The solution is given both in terms of a forward/backward system of stochastic differential equations and by a pair of Riccati equations. In certain cases, the solution to the mean field type control is also the equilibrium strategy for a class of mean field games. We use this fact to study an economic model of production of exhaustible resources.

Rejuvenating Allen's Arc with the Geometric Mean.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, William A.

1994-01-01

Contends that, despite ongoing criticism, Allen's arc elasticity formula remains entrenched in the microeconomics principles curriculum. Reviews the evolution and continuing scrutiny of the formula. Argues that the use of the geometric mean offers pedagogical advantages over the traditional arithmetic mean approach. (CFR)

*K-means and cluster models for cancer signatures.

Science.gov (United States)

Kakushadze, Zura; Yu, Willie

2017-09-01

We present *K-means clustering algorithm and source code by expanding statistical clustering methods applied in https://ssrn.com/abstract=2802753 to quantitative finance. *K-means is statistically deterministic without specifying initial centers, etc. We apply *K-means to extracting cancer signatures from genome data without using nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). *K-means' computational cost is a fraction of NMF's. Using 1389 published samples for 14 cancer types, we find that 3 cancers (liver cancer, lung cancer and renal cell carcinoma) stand out and do not have cluster-like structures. Two clusters have especially high within-cluster correlations with 11 other cancers indicating common underlying structures. Our approach opens a novel avenue for studying such structures. *K-means is universal and can be applied in other fields. We discuss some potential applications in quantitative finance.

Ratio of geometric means to analyze continuous outcomes in meta-analysis: comparison to mean differences and ratio of arithmetic means using empiric data and simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Friedrich, Jan O; Adhikari, Neill K J; Beyene, Joseph

2012-07-30

Meta-analyses pooling continuous outcomes can use mean differences (MD), standardized MD (MD in pooled standard deviation units, SMD), or ratio of arithmetic means (RoM). Recently, ratio of geometric means using ad hoc (RoGM (ad hoc) ) or Taylor series (RoGM (Taylor) ) methods for estimating variances have been proposed as alternative effect measures for skewed continuous data. Skewed data are suggested for summary measures of clinical parameters restricted to positive values which have large coefficients of variation (CV). Our objective was to compare performance characteristics of RoGM (ad hoc) and RoGM (Taylor) to MD, SMD, and RoM. We used empiric data from systematic reviews reporting continuous outcomes and selected from each the meta-analysis with the most and at least 5 trials (Cochrane Database [2008, Issue 1]). We supplemented this with simulations conducted with representative parameters. Pooled results were calculated using each effect measure. Of the reviews, 232/5053 met the inclusion criteria. Empiric data and simulation showed that RoGM (ad hoc) exhibits more extreme treatment effects and greater heterogeneity than all other effect measures. Compared with MD, SMD, and RoM, RoGM (Taylor) exhibits similar treatment effects, more heterogeneity when CV ≤0.7, and less heterogeneity when CV > 0.7. In conclusion, RoGM (Taylor) may be considered for pooling continuous outcomes in meta-analysis when data are skewed, but RoGM (ad hoc) should not be used. However, clinicians' lack of familiarity with geometric means combined with acceptable performance characteristics of RoM in most situations suggests that RoM may be the preferable ratio method for pooling continuous outcomes in meta-analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Means on scattered compacta

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Banakh, T.; Bonnet, R.; Kubiś, Wieslaw

2014-01-01

Roč. 2, č. 1 (2014), s. 5-10 ISSN 2299-3231 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP201/12/0290 Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : scattered compact space * mean operation Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/taa.2014.2.issue-1/taa-2014-0002/taa-2014-0002.xml

A spectral mean for random closed curves

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.N.M. van Lieshout (Marie-Colette)

2016-01-01

textabstractWe propose a spectral mean for closed sets described by sample points on their boundaries subject to mis-alignment and noise. We derive maximum likelihood estimators for the model and noise parameters in the Fourier domain. We estimate the unknown mean boundary curve by

7 CFR 58.705 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 58.705 Section 58.705 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards... § 58.705 Meaning of words. (a) Pasteurized process cheese and related products. Pasteurized process...

The Hybrid Museum: Hybrid Economies of Meaning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vestergaard, Vitus

2013-01-01

Social media has created new ways of communicating and has brought about a new distinctive ethos. New literacies are not simply about new technology but also about this new ethos. Many museums are embracing this ethos by what is often called participatory practices. From a sociocultural perspective...... this article shows that there are two different museum mindsets where the second mindset leans towards participatory practices. It is shown how a museum can support a hybrid economy of meaning that builds on both a user generated economy of meaning and an institutional economy of meaning and adds value to both...

Social Media: The Unbearable Lightness of Meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hector Postigo

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Milan Kundera, in his classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being undertook a consideration of the ephemeral. So I use it as a springboard for a brief consideration of social media and what is fixed and what is passing about its meaning to us as a self-aware species. Paradoxically that application of the concept slips into a conceptual tesseract as we attempt to hold social media to mean yet another contrivance for fixing our life experiences and then realize that who we were yesterday is not necessarily who we are today nor who we will be tomorrow, nor how we will be remembered once we’re gone. To hold its meaning still is to enter a self-referential paradox where the meaning of the thing contradicts the nature of that which it represents and vice versa. All that to say that while it is impossible to confirm whether social media are simulation or simulacra, it is possible to orient their meaning, through how we use them and design them, toward our better natures. If we succeed, it will fix not individuals but our common humanity, which may be the one thing about us that has never been ephemeral.

Experimental facilities and simulation means

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thomas, J.B.

2009-01-01

This paper and its associated series of slides review the experimental facilities and the simulation means used for the development of nuclear reactors in France. These experimental facilities include installations used for the measurement and qualification of nuclear data (mainly cross-sections) like EOLE reactor and Minerve zero power reactor, installations like material testing reactors, installations dedicated to reactor safety experiments like Cabri reactor, and other installations like accelerators (Jannus accelerator, GANIL for instance) that are complementary to neutron irradiations in experimental reactors. The simulation means rely on a series of advanced computer codes: Tripoli-Apollo for neutron transport, Numodis for irradiation impact on materials, Neptune and Cathare for 2-phase fluid dynamics, Europlexus for mechanical structures, and Pleiades (with Alcyone) for nuclear fuels. (A.C.)

Bayesian Simultaneous Estimation for Means in k Sample Problems

OpenAIRE

Imai, Ryo; Kubokawa, Tatsuya; Ghosh, Malay

2017-01-01

This paper is concerned with the simultaneous estimation of k population means when one suspects that the k means are nearly equal. As an alternative to the preliminary test estimator based on the test statistics for testing hypothesis of equal means, we derive Bayesian and minimax estimators which shrink individual sample means toward a pooled mean estimator given under the hypothesis. Interestingly, it is shown that both the preliminary test estimator and the Bayesian minimax shrinkage esti...

A spectral mean for random closed curves

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Lieshout, Maria Nicolette Margaretha

2016-01-01

We propose a spectral mean for closed sets described by sample points on their boundaries subject to mis-alignment and noise. We derive maximum likelihood estimators for the model and noise parameters in the Fourier domain. We estimate the unknown mean boundary curve by back-transformation and

7 CFR 27.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 27.1 Section 27.1 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing... CLASSIFICATION UNDER COTTON FUTURES LEGISLATION Regulations Definitions § 27.1 Meaning of words. Words used in...

7 CFR 47.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 47.1 Section 47.1 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing... UNDER THE PERISHABLE AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES ACT General Provisions § 47.1 Meaning of words. Words in...

Gricean Semantics and Vague Speaker-Meaning

OpenAIRE

Schiffer, Stephen

2017-01-01

Presentations of Gricean semantics, including Stephen Neale’s in “Silent Reference,” totally ignore vagueness, even though virtually every utterance is vague. I ask how Gricean semantics might be adjusted to accommodate vague speaker-meaning. My answer is that it can’t accommodate it: the Gricean program collapses in the face of vague speaker-meaning. The Gricean might, however, fi nd some solace in knowing that every other extant meta-semantic and semantic program is in the same boat.

Poor birth weight recovery among low birth weight/preterm infants following hospital discharge in Kampala, Uganda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Namiiro Flavia B

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Healthy infants typically regain their birth weight by 21 days of age; however, failure to do so may be due to medical, nutritional or environmental factors. Globally, the incidence of low birth weight deliveries is high, but few studies have assessed the postnatal weight changes in this category of infants, especially in Africa. The aim was to determine what proportion of LBW infants had not regained their birth weight by 21 days of age after discharge from the Special Care Unit of Mulago hospital, Kampala. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted assessing weight recovery of 235 LBW infants attending the Kangaroo Clinic in the Special Care Unit of Mulago Hospital between January and April 2010. Infants aged 21 days with a documented birth weight and whose mothers gave consent to participate were included in the study. Baseline information was collected on demographic characteristics, history on pregnancy, delivery and postnatal outcome through interviews. Pertinent infant information like gestation age, diagnosis and management was obtained from the medical records and summarized in the case report forms. Results Of the 235 LBW infants, 113 (48.1% had not regained their birth weight by 21 days. Duration of hospitalization for more than 7 days (AOR: 4.2; 95% CI: 2.3 - 7.6; p value Conclusion Failure to regain birth weight among LBW infants by 21 days of age is a common problem in Mulago Hospital occurring in almost half of the neonates attending the Kangaroo clinic. Currently, the burden of morbidity in this group of high-risk infants is undetected and unaddressed in many developing countries. Measures for consideration to improve care of these infants would include; discharge after regaining birth weight and use of total parenteral nutrition. However, due to the pressure of space, keeping the baby and mother is not feasible at the moment hence the need for a strong community system to boost care of the infant. Close

When Does Return of Voluntary Finger Extension Occur Post-Stroke? A Prospective Cohort Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caroline Winters

Full Text Available Patients without voluntary finger extension early post-stroke are suggested to have a poor prognosis for regaining upper limb capacity at 6 months. Despite this poor prognosis, a number of patients do regain upper limb capacity. We aimed to determine the time window for return of voluntary finger extension during motor recovery and identify clinical characteristics of patients who, despite an initially poor prognosis, show upper limb capacity at 6 months post-stroke.Survival analysis was used to assess the time window for return of voluntary finger extension (Fugl-Meyer Assessment hand sub item finger extension≥1. A cut-off of ≥10 points on the Action Research Arm Test was used to define return of some upper limb capacity (i.e. ability to pick up a small object. Probabilities for regaining upper limb capacity at 6 months post-stroke were determined with multivariable logistic regression analysis using patient characteristics.45 of the 100 patients without voluntary finger extension at 8 ± 4 days post-stroke achieved an Action Research Arm Test score of ≥10 points at 6 months. The median time for regaining voluntary finger extension for these recoverers was 4 weeks (lower and upper percentile respectively 2 and 8 weeks. The median time to return of VFE was not reached for the whole group (N = 100. Patients who had moderate to good lower limb function (Motricity Index leg≥35 points, no visuospatial neglect (single-letter cancellation test asymmetry between the contralesional and ipsilesional sides of <2 omissions and sufficient somatosensory function (Erasmus MC modified Nottingham Sensory Assessment≥33 points had a 0.94 probability of regaining upper limb capacity at 6 months post-stroke.We recommend weekly monitoring of voluntary finger extension within the first 4 weeks post-stroke and preferably up to 8 weeks. Patients with paresis mainly restricted to the upper limb, no visuospatial neglect and sufficient somatosensory function are

Means and Variances without Calculus

Science.gov (United States)

Kinney, John J.

2005-01-01

This article gives a method of finding discrete approximations to continuous probability density functions and shows examples of its use, allowing students without calculus access to the calculation of means and variances.

Improvisation and meaning.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilbertson, Simon

2013-08-07

This article presents and discusses a long-term repeated-immersion research process that explores meaning allocated to an episode of 50 seconds of music improvisation in early neurosurgical rehabilitation by a teenage boy with severe traumatic brain injury and his music therapist. The process began with the original therapy session in August 1994 and extends to the current time of writing in 2013. A diverse selection of qualitative research methods were used during a repeated immersion and engagement with the selected episodes. The multiple methods used in this enquiry include therapeutic narrative analysis and musicological and video analysis during my doctoral research between 2002 and 2004, arts-based research in 2008 using expressive writing, and arts-based research in 2012 based on the creation of a body cast of my right hand as I used it to play the first note of my music improvising in the original therapy episode, which is accompanied by reflective journaling. The casting of my hand was done to explore and reconsider the role of my own body as an embodied and integral, but originally hidden, part of the therapy process. Put together, these investigations explore the potential meanings of the episode of music improvisation in therapy in an innovative and imaginative way. However, this article does not aim at this stage to present a model or theory for neurorehabilitation but offers an example of how a combination of diverse qualitative methods over an extended period of time can be instrumental in gaining innovative and rich insights into initially hidden perspectives on health, well-being, and human relating.

Observations on vapor pressure in SPR caverns : sources.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Munson, Darrell Eugene

2010-05-01

The oil of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) represents a national response to any potential emergency or intentional restriction of crude oil supply to this country, and conforms to International Agreements to maintain such a reserve. As assurance this reserve oil will be available in a timely manner should a restriction in supply occur, the oil of the reserve must meet certain transportation criteria. The transportation criteria require that the oil does not evolve dangerous gas, either explosive or toxic, while in the process of transport to, or storage at, the destination facility. This requirement can be a challenge because the stored oil can acquire dissolved gases while in the SPR. There have been a series of reports analyzing in exceptional detail the reasons for the increases, or regains, in gas content; however, there remains some uncertainty in these explanations and an inability to predict why the regains occur. Where the regains are prohibitive and exceed the criteria, the oil must undergo degasification, where excess portions of the volatile gas are removed. There are only two known sources of gas regain, one is the salt dome formation itself which may contain gas inclusions from which gas can be released during oil processing or storage, and the second is increases of the gases release by the volatile components of the crude oil itself during storage, especially if the stored oil undergoes heating or is subject to biological generation processes. In this work, the earlier analyses are reexamined and significant alterations in conclusions are proposed. The alterations are based on how the fluid exchanges of brine and oil uptake gas released from domal salt during solutioning, and thereafter, during further exchanges of fluids. Transparency of the brine/oil interface and the transfer of gas across this interface remains an important unanswered question. The contribution from creep induced damage releasing gas from the salt surrounding the cavern is

The Personal Meaning of Participation: Enduring Involvement.

Science.gov (United States)

McIntyre, N.

1989-01-01

Examines the personal meaning of participation, discussing recreation and consumer behavior literature, the development of an instrument to measure the concept, and the relationship between commitment to camping and choice of campground setting. Personal meaning of participation seems to be best represented by the concept of enduring involvement.…

7 CFR 58.605 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... for Plants Manufacturing, Processing and Packaging Frozen Desserts § 58.605 Meaning of words. For the... shall have the following meaning as applied to frozen desserts meeting FDA requirements and briefly... after freezing become a frozen dessert. [40 FR 47911, Oct. 10, 1975. Redesignated at 42 FR 32514, June...

Smoothed analysis of the k-means method

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arthur, David; Manthey, Bodo; Röglin, Heiko

2011-01-01

The k-means method is one of the most widely used clustering algorithms, drawing its popularity from its speed in practice. Recently, however, it was shown to have exponential worst-case running time. In order to close the gap between practical performance and theoretical analysis, the k-means

7 CFR 201.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 201.1 Section 201.1 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards... REGULATIONS Definitions § 201.1 Meaning of words. Words in the regulations in this part in the singular form...

7 CFR 58.905 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 58.905 Section 58.905 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards... Products § 58.905 Meaning of words. For the purpose of the regulations in this subpart, words in the...

7 CFR 97.2 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 97.2 Section 97.2 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards... PLANT VARIETY AND PROTECTION Definitions § 97.2 Meaning of words. Words used in the regulations in this...

7 CFR 58.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 58.1 Section 58.1 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards... Meaning of words. For the purpose of the regulations in this subpart, words in the singular form shall be...

7 CFR 53.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 53.1 Section 53.1 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards..., CERTIFICATION, AND STANDARDS) Regulations Definitions § 53.1 Meaning of words. Words used in this subpart in the...

The Social Construction of Place Meaning: Exploring Multiple Meanings of Place as an Outdoor Teaching and Learning Environment

OpenAIRE

Gkoutis, Georgios

2014-01-01

This investigation explores the meanings primary school teachers who apply outdoor learning and teaching methods associate withthe places that encompass their teaching practices. A symbolic interactionist framework coupled with a social constructionistorientation was employed to analyze data collected from semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation techniques. The findingsillustrated that meaning ascribed to place derived from the interactional processes between the study’s respondents ...

Towards explaining the speed of k-means

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Manthey, Bodo; van de Pol, Jan Cornelis; Raamsdonk, F.; Stoelinga, Mariëlle Ida Antoinette

2011-01-01

The $k$-means method is a popular algorithm for clustering, known for its speed in practice. This stands in contrast to its exponential worst-case running-time. To explain the speed of the $k$-means method, a smoothed analysis has been conducted. We sketch this smoothed analysis and a generalization

7 CFR 202.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 202.1 Section 202.1 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards... RULES OF PRACTICE General § 202.1 Meaning of words. As used in this part, words in the singular form...

9 CFR 351.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 351.1 Section 351.1 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGENCY... CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATION OF TECHNICAL ANIMAL FATS FOR EXPORT Definitions § 351.1 Meaning of words. Words used...

7 CFR 43.101 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 43.101 Section 43.101 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing... SAMPLING PLANS Definitions § 43.101 Meaning of words. Words used in this subpart in the singular form shall...

7 CFR 42.101 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 42.101 Section 42.101 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing... CONDITION OF FOOD CONTAINERS Definitions § 42.101 Meaning of words. Words used in this part in the singular...

Mean age distribution of inorganic soil-nitrogen

Science.gov (United States)

Woo, Dong K.; Kumar, Praveen

2016-07-01

Excess reactive nitrogen in soils of intensively managed landscapes causes adverse environmental impact, and continues to remain a global concern. Many novel strategies have been developed to provide better management practices and, yet, the problem remains unresolved. The objective of this study is to develop a model to characterize the "age" of inorganic soil-nitrogen (nitrate, and ammonia/ammonium). We use the general theory of age, which provides an assessment of the time elapsed since inorganic nitrogen has been introduced into the soil system. We analyze a corn-corn-soybean rotation, common in the Midwest United States, as an example application. We observe two counter-intuitive results: (1) the mean nitrogen age in the topsoil layer is relatively high; and (2) mean nitrogen age is lower under soybean cultivation compared to corn although no fertilizer is applied for soybean cultivation. The first result can be explained by cation-exchange of ammonium that retards the leaching of nitrogen, resulting in an increase in the mean nitrogen age near the soil surface. The second result arises because the soybean utilizes the nitrogen fertilizer left from the previous year, thereby removing the older nitrogen and reducing mean nitrogen age. Estimating the mean nitrogen age can thus serve as an important tool to disentangle complex nitrogen dynamics by providing a nuanced characterization of the time scales of soil-nitrogen transformation and transport processes.

The Past and Future of Meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaroslav Peregrin

2010-12-01

Full Text Available For many centuries, a predominant view of meaning was that the meaning of a word is some kind of chunk of mind-stuff ("idea" glued to the word and animating it. However, while the traditional view was that we must first understand meaning, which enables us to understand language and hence our linguistic practices, a new approach to semantics that has emerged in the second half of the twentieth century, and which I see as marking the future of meaning, suggests that it is our linguistic practices on which we must concentrate from the beginning. In this paper I suggest a specific understanding of these practices, yielding the conclusion that meanings are reasonably seen as creatures of our activity of setting up certain systems of rules, thus opening up new kinds of virtual spaces which we can "enter". Meaning is what emerges within the intricately orchestrated space that we have somehow managed to bring into being by means of accepting the rules which are in charge of our language games, especially the game of giving and asking for reasons.ReferencesBrandom, R. 1994. Making It Explicit. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass..Carnap, R. 1934. Logische Syntax der Sprache. Springer, Vienna. English translation The Logical Syntax of Language, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1937.Carnap, R. 1947. Meaning and Necessity. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Chomsky, N. 1993. Language and Thought. Moyer Bell, Wakefield.Coffa, A. 1991. The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Davidson, D. 1996. ‘The Folly of Trying to Define Truth’. Journal of Philosophy 93: 263–278.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2941075Devitt, M. 1994. ‘The Methodology of Naturalistic Semantics’. Journal of Philosophy 91: 545–572.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2940802Frege, G. 1918/9. ‘Der Gedanke’. Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus 2: 58–77.Kripke, S. 1963. ‘Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic’. Acta

Singular mean-filed games

KAUST Repository

Cirant, Marco; Gomes, Diogo A.; Pimentel, Edgard A.; Sá nchez-Morgado, Hé ctor

2016-01-01

Here, we prove the existence of smooth solutions for mean-field games with a singular mean-field coupling; that is, a coupling in the Hamilton-Jacobi equation of the form $g(m)=-m^{-\\alpha}$. We consider stationary and time-dependent settings. The function $g$ is monotone, but it is not bounded from below. With the exception of the logarithmic coupling, this is the first time that MFGs whose coupling is not bounded from below is examined in the literature. This coupling arises in models where agents have a strong preference for low-density regions. Paradoxically, this causes the agents to spread and prevents the creation of solutions with a very-low density. To prove the existence of solutions, we consider an approximate problem for which the existence of smooth solutions is known. Then, we prove new a priori bounds for the solutions that show that $\\frac 1 m$ is bounded. Finally, using a limiting argument, we obtain the existence of solutions. The proof in the stationary case relies on a blow-up argument and in the time-dependent case on new bounds for $m^{-1}$.

Singular mean-filed games

KAUST Repository

Cirant, Marco

2016-11-22

Here, we prove the existence of smooth solutions for mean-field games with a singular mean-field coupling; that is, a coupling in the Hamilton-Jacobi equation of the form $g(m)=-m^{-\\\\alpha}$. We consider stationary and time-dependent settings. The function $g$ is monotone, but it is not bounded from below. With the exception of the logarithmic coupling, this is the first time that MFGs whose coupling is not bounded from below is examined in the literature. This coupling arises in models where agents have a strong preference for low-density regions. Paradoxically, this causes the agents to spread and prevents the creation of solutions with a very-low density. To prove the existence of solutions, we consider an approximate problem for which the existence of smooth solutions is known. Then, we prove new a priori bounds for the solutions that show that $\\\\frac 1 m$ is bounded. Finally, using a limiting argument, we obtain the existence of solutions. The proof in the stationary case relies on a blow-up argument and in the time-dependent case on new bounds for $m^{-1}$.

Mean square stabilization and mean square exponential stabilization of stochastic BAM neural networks with Markovian jumping parameters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye, Zhiyong; Zhang, He; Zhang, Hongyu; Zhang, Hua; Lu, Guichen

2015-01-01

Highlights: •This paper introduces a non-conservative Lyapunov functional. •The achieved results impose non-conservative and can be widely used. •The conditions are easily checked by the Matlab LMI Tool Box. The desired state feedback controller can be well represented by the conditions. -- Abstract: This paper addresses the mean square exponential stabilization problem of stochastic bidirectional associative memory (BAM) neural networks with Markovian jumping parameters and time-varying delays. By establishing a proper Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and combining with LMIs technique, several sufficient conditions are derived for ensuring exponential stabilization in the mean square sense of such stochastic BAM neural networks. In addition, the achieved results are not difficult to verify for determining the mean square exponential stabilization of delayed BAM neural networks with Markovian jumping parameters and impose less restrictive and less conservative than the ones in previous papers. Finally, numerical results are given to show the effectiveness and applicability of the achieved results

Meaning discrimination in bilingual Venda dictionaries | Mafela ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In most cases, the equivalents of the entry-words are provided without giving meaning discrimination. Without a good command of Venda and the provision of meaning discrimination, users will find it difficult to make a correct choice of the equivalent for which they are looking. Bilingual Venda dictionaries are therefore not ...

7 CFR 283.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 283.1 Section 283.1 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE... Meaning of words. As used in this part, words in the singular form shall be deemed to import the plural...

9 CFR 590.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 590.1 Section 590.1 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE EGG PRODUCTS... words. Under these regulations, words in the singular shall be deemed to mean the plural and vice versa...

9 CFR 355.1 - Meaning of words.

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2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 355.1 Section 355.1 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGENCY... IDENTIFICATION AS TO CLASS, QUALITY, QUANTITY, AND CONDITION Definitions § 355.1 Meaning of words. Words used in...

9 CFR 350.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 350.1 Section 350.1 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGENCY... CERTIFICATION SPECIAL SERVICES RELATING TO MEAT AND OTHER PRODUCTS § 350.1 Meaning of words. Words used in this...

Single pass kernel k-means clustering method

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

paper proposes a simple and faster version of the kernel k-means clustering ... It has been considered as an important tool ... On the other hand, kernel-based clustering methods, like kernel k-means clus- ..... able at the UCI machine learning repository (Murphy 1994). ... All the data sets have only numeric valued features.

MEAN PLATELET VOLUME AND RISK OF THROMBOTIC STROKE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prasantha Kumar Thankappan

2017-07-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND Stroke is a major cause of long term morbidity and mortality. Several factors are known to increase the liability to stroke. Platelets play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic complications, contributing to thrombus formation. Platelet size (mean platelet volume, MPV is a marker and possible determinant of platelet function, large platelets being potentially more reactive. Hence an attempt has-been made to study the association if any between mean platelet volume and thrombotic stroke. The aim of this study was to determine whether an association exists between Mean Platelet Volume (MPV and thrombotic stroke. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study is a case control study and data was collected at Government Medical College Hospital, Kottayam, Kerala a tertiary care referral centre. The study was carried out among fifty patients diagnosed with thrombotic stroke and presenting to the hospital within forty eight hours of onset of symptoms. Fifty age group and sex matched controls were also recruited. Mean platelet volume was obtained using a SYSMEX automated analyser. RESULTS This study has shown a statistically significant relation between mean platelet volume and risk of thrombotic stroke but no statistically significant correlation between clinical severity of stroke and mean platelet volume. CONCLUSION This study has shown an elevation of MPV in acute phase of thrombotic stroke. Platelet mass was found to be more or less a constant. This study did not find a statistically significant correlation between clinical severity of stroke and mean platelet volume.

Event-by-event fluctuations in mean pT and mean eT in √(sNN)=130 GeV Au+Au collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adcox, K.; El Chenawi, K.; Ghosh, T.K.; Greene, S.V.; Maguire, C.F.; Miller, T.E.; Rose, A.A.; Adler, S.S.; Aronson, S.H.; David, G.; Desmond, E.J.; Ewell, L.; Franz, A.; Guryn, W.; Haggerty, J.S.; Johnson, B.M.; Kistenev, E.; Kroon, P.J.; Mahon, J.; Makdisi, Y.I.

2002-01-01

Distributions of event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum and mean transverse energy near mid-rapidity have been measured in Au+Au collisions at √(s NN )=130 GeV at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider. By comparing the distributions to what is expected for statistically independent particle emission, the magnitude of nonstatistical fluctuations in mean transverse momentum is determined to be consistent with zero. Also, no significant nonrandom fluctuations in mean transverse energy are observed. By constructing a fluctuation model with two event classes that preserve the mean and variance of the semi-inclusive p T or e T spectra, we exclude a region of fluctuations in √(s NN )=130 GeV Au+Au collisions

Men’s Grief, Meaning and Growth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Spaten, Ole Michael; Byrialsen, Mia Nørremark; Langdridge, Darren

2012-01-01

There is a scarcity of research on men's experience of bereavement (Reiniche, 2006), particularly in relation to qualitative research that focuses on the meaning of such an experience. This paper seeks to address this scarcity by presenting the findings from a phenomenological study of the life-w...... phenomenological method of Van Manen (1990) was used to uncover three key themes, labelled grief and self-reflection, meaning of life and loss, and re-figuring the life-world. These themes are discussed in the light of broader existential concerns and the extant literature....

Regression away from the mean: Theory and examples.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwarz, Wolf; Reike, Dennis

2018-02-01

Using a standard repeated measures model with arbitrary true score distribution and normal error variables, we present some fundamental closed-form results which explicitly indicate the conditions under which regression effects towards (RTM) and away from the mean are expected. Specifically, we show that for skewed and bimodal distributions many or even most cases will show a regression effect that is in expectation away from the mean, or that is not just towards but actually beyond the mean. We illustrate our results in quantitative detail with typical examples from experimental and biometric applications, which exhibit a clear regression away from the mean ('egression from the mean') signature. We aim not to repeal cautionary advice against potential RTM effects, but to present a balanced view of regression effects, based on a clear identification of the conditions governing the form that regression effects take in repeated measures designs. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

The Meaning of Mandela

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krabbe, Julia Suárez

2017-01-01

Book Reviews The Meaning of Mandela: A Broader Canvas. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, The Decolonial Mandela: Peace, Justice and the Politics of Life (Oxford and New York, Berghahn Books, 2016), 186 pp., hardback, £64.00, US$90.00, ISBN 978-1-78533-118-3; paperback, £19.00, US$27.95, ISBN 978......-1-78533-296-8; e-book, ISBN 978-1-79533-119-0...

On Mean-Variance Analysis

OpenAIRE

Li, Yang; Pirvu, Traian A

2011-01-01

This paper considers the mean variance portfolio management problem. We examine portfolios which contain both primary and derivative securities. The challenge in this context is due to portfolio's nonlinearities. The delta-gamma approximation is employed to overcome it. Thus, the optimization problem is reduced to a well posed quadratic program. The methodology developed in this paper can be also applied to pricing and hedging in incomplete markets.

Community-based study on intracerebral hemorrhage in northern Hokkaido. Northern Hokkaido Stroke Study (NOHSS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sako, Kazuhiro; Shirai, Wakako; Tokumitu, Naoki; Aizawa, Shizuka

2008-01-01

A survey on stroke was conducted to evaluate the incidence of intracerebral hemorrhage and the prevalence of risk factors. The subjects, comprising those patients who suffesed a stroke, were registered on the Northern Hokkaido Stroke Study between July 2002 and June 2006. The severity of their illness was rated by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at hospital admission, while their outcome was determined by the mortality within 3 months and the mRS (modified Rankin Scale score). Of the 1,046 registered stroke patients, 271 (25.9%) were found to suffer from cerebral hemorrhage. Their mean age was 70.3±11.7 years; male-to-female ratio, 154/117; mean NIHSS at admission, 11.8±8.1; mortality within 3 months, 19.2%; and percentage who regained independence within 3 months (mRS: ≤2), 32.5%. A history of hypertension was found in 72.6%, and 13.7% had no treatment. MRI (T2*) revealed micro-hemorrhage outside the lesions in 67.5%. Forty-seven patients (17.3%) were taking anti-platelet agents at the onset of intracerebral hemorrhage. There was no significant difference between the mortalities of the anti-platelet-agent-users and non-users but the percentage of those regaining independence within 3 months was 19.1% for the users against 37.3% for the non-users (p=0.0177), with a significantly poor outcome in the user group. In northern Hokkaido, the incidence of cerebral hemorrhage remains high, and the percentage of those with poorly controlled or uncontrolled hypertension was 30%. These findings suggest a need to educate not only the inhabitants themselves but also the physicians engaged in their care. (author)

7 CFR 1.130 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 1.130 Section 1.130 Agriculture... Adjudicatory Proceedings Instituted by the Secretary Under Various Statutes § 1.130 Meaning of words. As used in this subpart, words in the singular form shall be deemed to import the plural, and vice versa, as...

9 CFR 201.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 201.1 Section 201.1 Animals and Animal Products GRAIN INSPECTION, PACKERS AND STOCKYARDS ADMINISTRATION (PACKERS AND... § 201.1 Meaning of words. Words used in this part in the singular form shall be deemed to import the...

7 CFR 58.505 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 58.505 Section 58.505 Agriculture... for Plants Manufacturing and Packaging Cottage Cheese § 58.505 Meaning of words. For the purpose of the regulations in this subpart, words in the singular form shall be deemed to impart the plural and...

7 CFR 205.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 205.1 Section 205.1 Agriculture... PROVISIONS NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM Definitions § 205.1 Meaning of words. For the purpose of the regulations in this subpart, words in the singular form shall be deemed to impart the plural and vice versa, as...

7 CFR 75.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 75.1 Section 75.1 Agriculture... AND CERTIFICATION OF QUALITY OF AGRICULTURAL AND VEGETABLE SEEDS Definitions § 75.1 Meaning of words. Words used in the regulations in this part in the singular form shall be deemed to import the plural and...

On Social Optima of Non-Cooperative Mean Field Games

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Sen; Zhang, Wei; Zhao, Lin; Lian, Jianming; Kalsi, Karanjit

2016-12-12

This paper studies the social optima in noncooperative mean-field games for a large population of agents with heterogeneous stochastic dynamic systems. Each agent seeks to maximize an individual utility functional, and utility functionals of different agents are coupled through a mean field term that depends on the mean of the population states/controls. The paper has the following contributions. First, we derive a set of control strategies for the agents that possess *-Nash equilibrium property, and converge to the mean-field Nash equilibrium as the population size goes to infinity. Second, we study the social optimal in the mean field game. We derive the conditions, termed the socially optimal conditions, under which the *-Nash equilibrium of the mean field game maximizes the social welfare. Third, a primal-dual algorithm is proposed to compute the *-Nash equilibrium of the mean field game. Since the *-Nash equilibrium of the mean field game is socially optimal, we can compute the equilibrium by solving the social welfare maximization problem, which can be addressed by a decentralized primal-dual algorithm. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Rise of mean multiplicity depending on transverse momentum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Troshin, S.M.

1977-01-01

Dependence of mean multiplicity on the transversal momentum transfer is studied. In framework of the model in view, based on possible probabilitic interpretation of the unitarity condition, and assuming a weak correlation between the recoil particle momenta in the intermediate n-particle state, it is shown that mean multiplicity increases linearly with rise of the transversal momentum. Behaviour of the mean multiplicity depending on the impact parameter is also studied

Radiation stress and mean drift in continental shelf waves

Science.gov (United States)

Weber, Jan Erik H.; Drivdal, Magnus

2012-03-01

The time- and depth-averaged mean drift induced by barotropic continental shelf waves (CSW's) is studied theoretically for idealized shelf topography by calculating the mean volume fluxes to second order in wave amplitude. The waves suffer weak spatial damping due to bottom friction, which leads to radiation stress forcing of the mean fluxes. In terms of the total wave energy density E̅̅ over the shelf region, the radiation stress tensor component S̅11 for CSW's is found to be different from that of shallow water surface waves in a non-rotating ocean. For CSW's, the ratio S̅11/E̅ depends strongly on the wave number. The mean Lagrangian flow forced by the radiation stress can be subdivided into a Stokes drift and a mean Eulerian drift current. The magnitude of latter depends on ratio between the radiation stress and the bottom stress acting on the mean flow. When the effect of bottom friction acts equally strong on the waves and the mean current, calculations for short CSW's show that the Stokes drift and the friction-dependent wave-induced mean Eulerian current varies approximately in anti-phase over the shelf, and that the latter is numerically the largest. For long CSW's they are approximately in phase. In both cases the mean Lagrangian current, which is responsible for the net particle drift, has its largest numerical value at the coast on the shallow part of the shelf. Enhancing the effect of bottom friction on the Eulerian mean flow, results in a general current speed reduction, as well as a change in spatial structure for long waves. Applying realistic physical parameters for the continental shelf west of Norway, calculations yield along-shelf mean drift velocities for short CSW's that may be important for the transport of biological material, neutral tracers, and underwater plumes of dissolved oil from deepwater drilling accidents.

Improvisation and meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon Gilbertson

2013-08-01

Full Text Available This article presents and discusses a long-term repeated-immersion research process that explores meaning allocated to an episode of 50 seconds of music improvisation in early neurosurgical rehabilitation by a teenage boy with severe traumatic brain injury and his music therapist. The process began with the original therapy session in August 1994 and extends to the current time of writing in 2013. A diverse selection of qualitative research methods were used during a repeated immersion and engagement with the selected episodes. The multiple methods used in this enquiry include therapeutic narrative analysis and musicological and video analysis during my doctoral research between 2002 and 2004, arts-based research in 2008 using expressive writing, and arts-based research in 2012 based on the creation of a body cast of my right hand as I used it to play the first note of my music improvising in the original therapy episode, which is accompanied by reflective journaling. The casting of my hand was done to explore and reconsider the role of my own body as an embodied and integral, but originally hidden, part of the therapy process. Put together, these investigations explore the potential meanings of the episode of music improvisation in therapy in an innovative and imaginative way. However, this article does not aim at this stage to present a model or theory for neurorehabilitation but offers an example of how a combination of diverse qualitative methods over an extended period of time can be instrumental in gaining innovative and rich insights into initially hidden perspectives on health, well-being, and human relating.

Improvisation and meaning

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

This article presents and discusses a long-term repeated-immersion research process that explores meaning allocated to an episode of 50 seconds of music improvisation in early neurosurgical rehabilitation by a teenage boy with severe traumatic brain injury and his music therapist. The process began with the original therapy session in August 1994 and extends to the current time of writing in 2013. A diverse selection of qualitative research methods were used during a repeated immersion and engagement with the selected episodes. The multiple methods used in this enquiry include therapeutic narrative analysis and musicological and video analysis during my doctoral research between 2002 and 2004, arts-based research in 2008 using expressive writing, and arts-based research in 2012 based on the creation of a body cast of my right hand as I used it to play the first note of my music improvising in the original therapy episode, which is accompanied by reflective journaling. The casting of my hand was done to explore and reconsider the role of my own body as an embodied and integral, but originally hidden, part of the therapy process. Put together, these investigations explore the potential meanings of the episode of music improvisation in therapy in an innovative and imaginative way. However, this article does not aim at this stage to present a model or theory for neurorehabilitation but offers an example of how a combination of diverse qualitative methods over an extended period of time can be instrumental in gaining innovative and rich insights into initially hidden perspectives on health, well-being, and human relating. PMID:23930989

Introducing the Mean Absolute Deviation "Effect" Size

Science.gov (United States)

Gorard, Stephen

2015-01-01

This paper revisits the use of effect sizes in the analysis of experimental and similar results, and reminds readers of the relative advantages of the mean absolute deviation as a measure of variation, as opposed to the more complex standard deviation. The mean absolute deviation is easier to use and understand, and more tolerant of extreme…

Two Populations Mean-Field Monomer-Dimer Model

Science.gov (United States)

Alberici, Diego; Mingione, Emanuele

2018-04-01

A two populations mean-field monomer-dimer model including both hard-core and attractive interactions between dimers is considered. The pressure density in the thermodynamic limit is proved to satisfy a variational principle. A detailed analysis is made in the limit of one population is much smaller than the other and a ferromagnetic mean-field phase transition is found.

A Personal Reflection on Educating for Meaning

Science.gov (United States)

Nash, Robert J.

2008-01-01

The major premise of this article is inspired by Viktor Frankl's words: "The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged--survival for what? Ever more people today have the "means" to live, but no "meaning" to live for." Thousands of students who have come through the author's college courses during the last…

The Structure of Meaning--A Linguistic Description.

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenhardt, Catheryn T.

Just as a reader must bring an experiential conceptual background to the printed page, so must he bring an ability to recognize the graphic cues that signal meaning. The graphic cues or structural meaning works as a system the description of which can be outlined in three parts as the vocabulary, the structure, and the sound. What has been…

7 CFR 48.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 48.1 Section 48.1 Agriculture... SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE PRODUCE AGENCY ACT Definitions § 48.1 Meaning of words. Words in this part in the singular form shall be deemed to import the plural, and vice versa, as the...

7 CFR 58.405 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 58.405 Section 58.405 Agriculture... for Plants Manufacturing and Packaging Cheese § 58.405 Meaning of words. For the purpose of the regulations in this subpart, words in the singular form shall be deemed to impart the plural and vice versa as...

9 CFR 592.1 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 592.1 Section 592.1... INSPECTION VOLUNTARY INSPECTION OF EGG PRODUCTS Definitions § 592.1 Meaning of words. Under the regulations in this part words in the singular shall be deemed to import the plural and vice versa, as the case...

7 CFR 58.205 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 58.205 Section 58.205 Agriculture... Whole Milk, and Dry Buttermilk § 58.205 Meaning of words. For the purpose of the regulations in this subpart, words in the singular form shall be deemed to impart the plural and vice versa, as the case may...

7 CFR 54.1001 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 54.1001 Section 54.1001 Agriculture... and Poultry Products § 54.1001 Meaning of words. For the purposes of the regulations in this subpart, words in the singular form shall be deemed to impart the plural and vice versa, as the case may demand. ...

Stereological estimation of nuclear mean volume in invasive meningiomas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, C; Schrøder, H D

1996-01-01

A stereological estimation of nuclear mean volume in bone and brain invasive meningiomas was made. For comparison the nuclear mean volume of benign meningiomas was estimated. The aim was to investigate whether this method could discriminate between these groups. We found that the nuclear mean...... volume in the bone and brain invasive meningiomas was larger than in the benign tumors. The difference was significant and moreover it was seen that there was no overlap between the two groups. In the bone invasive meningiomas the nuclear mean volume appeared to be larger inside than outside the bone....... No significant difference in nuclear mean volume was found between brain and bone invasive meningiomas. The results demonstrate that invasive meningiomas differ from benign meningiomas by an objective stereological estimation of nuclear mean volume (p

K-means Clustering: Lloyd's algorithm

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics. K-means Clustering: Lloyd's algorithm. Refines clusters iteratively. Cluster points using Voronoi partitioning of the centers; Centroids of the clusters determine the new centers. Bad example k = 3, n =4.

Modeling of the Case Grammatical Meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Алексей Львович Новиков

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The article raises the problem of constructing a semantic model to describe the meaning of the grammatical category of case in the languages of different types. The main objective of this publication - to provide an overview of different points of view on the semantic structure of the category of case and to compare different models of case semantics. Initial impulse to the development of problems of case semantics became the grammar and typological ideas of A.A. Potebnya and R. Jakobson. The basis of these models, which differ from each other in the number and nature of the allocation of features is the idea of the possibility of representing grammatical meaning as a structured set of semantic features. The analysis shows that the construction of formal models of grammatical categories is impossible without referring to the content of the dominant semantic features in the structure of grammatical meaning. Despite all the difficulties of modeling grammatical semantics, to construct a semantic model of case is an interesting and promising task of general morphology and typological linguistics.

Persian Gardens: Meanings, Symbolism, and Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leila Mahmoudi Farahani

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Culture and identity in a society can be represented in the architecture and the meanings intertwined with it. In this sense, the architecture and design are the interface for transferring meaning and identity to the nation and future generations. Persian gardens have been evolved through the history of Persian Empire in regard to the culture and beliefs of the society. This paper aims to investigate the patterns of design and architecture in Persian gardens and the meanings intertwined with their patterns and significant elements such as water and trees. Persian gardens are not only about geometries and shapes; but also manifest different design elements, each representing a specific symbol and its significance among the society. This paper seeks to explore Persian gardens in terms of their geometric structure, irrigation system, network construction and pavilions alongside design qualities such as hierarchy, symmetry, centrality, rhythm and harmony. In the second stage, the paper investigates the fundamental symbols and their philosophy in the creation of Persian gardens and in relation to the architecture and design.

*K-means and Cluster Models for Cancer Signatures

OpenAIRE

Kakushadze, Zura; Yu, Willie

2017-01-01

We present *K-means clustering algorithm and source code by expanding statistical clustering methods applied in https://ssrn.com/abstract=2802753 to quantitative finance. *K-means is statistically deterministic without specifying initial centers, etc. We apply *K-means to extracting cancer signatures from genome data without using nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). *K-means’ computational cost is a fraction of NMF’s. Using 1389 published samples for 14 cancer types, we find that 3 cancer...

Performance Evaluation of Incremental K-means Clustering Algorithm

OpenAIRE

Chakraborty, Sanjay; Nagwani, N. K.

2014-01-01

The incremental K-means clustering algorithm has already been proposed and analysed in paper [Chakraborty and Nagwani, 2011]. It is a very innovative approach which is applicable in periodically incremental environment and dealing with a bulk of updates. In this paper the performance evaluation is done for this incremental K-means clustering algorithm using air pollution database. This paper also describes the comparison on the performance evaluations between existing K-means clustering and i...

A global mean ocean circulation estimation using goce gravity models - the DTU12MDT mean dynamic topography model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Per; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2012-01-01

The Gravity and Ocean Circulation Experiment - GOCE satellite mission measure the Earth gravity field with unprecedented accuracy leading to substantial improvements in the modelling of the ocean circulation and transport. In this study of the performance of GOCE, a newer gravity model have been...... combined with the DTU10MSS mean sea surface model to construct a global mean dynamic topography model named DTU10MDT. The results of preliminary analyses using preliminary GOCE gravity models clearly demonstrated the potential of GOCE mission. Both the resolution and the estimation of the surface currents...... have been improved significantly compared to results obtained using pre-GOCE gravity field models. The results of this study show that geostrophic surface currents associated with the mean circulation have been further improved and that currents having speeds down to 5 cm/s have been recovered....

Mean-Variance portfolio optimization by using non constant mean and volatility based on the negative exponential utility function

Science.gov (United States)

Soeryana, Endang; Halim, Nurfadhlina Bt Abdul; Sukono, Rusyaman, Endang; Supian, Sudradjat

2017-03-01

Investments in stocks investors are also faced with the issue of risk, due to daily price of stock also fluctuate. For minimize the level of risk, investors usually forming an investment portfolio. Establishment of a portfolio consisting of several stocks are intended to get the optimal composition of the investment portfolio. This paper discussed about optimizing investment portfolio of Mean-Variance to stocks by using mean and volatility is not constant based on the Negative Exponential Utility Function. Non constant mean analyzed using models Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA), while non constant volatility models are analyzed using the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional heteroscedastic (GARCH). Optimization process is performed by using the Lagrangian multiplier technique. As a numerical illustration, the method is used to analyze some stocks in Indonesia. The expected result is to get the proportion of investment in each stock analyzed

Personal Meaning Orientations and Psychosocial Adaptation in Older Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gary T. Reker

2011-04-01

Full Text Available This study examined how different patterns of sources of meaning in life impact the psychosocial adaptation of older adults. A total of 120 (62 women and 58 men community-residing older adults completed self-report measures of sources of meaning in life, physical health, life satisfaction, depression, personality, existential regrets, attitudes toward aging, and attitudes toward life. Cluster analysis of sources of meaning revealed four distinct meaning orientations: self-transcendent (n = 32, collectivistic (n = 24, individualistic (n = 34, and self-preoccupied (n = 30. MANCOVA analysis of the four groups, controlling for age, marital status, education, and financial satisfaction, revealed a strong multivariate main effect for meaning orientation. No statistically significant gender and Gender × Meaning orientation interaction effects were found. Older adults, who derive meaning from self-transcendent sources, are more extraverted, open to experience, agreeable, and conscientious; perceive greater purpose and coherence in life; feel more in control in directing their lives; express a stronger desire to get more out of life; and are less depressed compared with those who derive meaning through pursuing self-serving interests without any real commitment to personal, interpersonal, or societal development. The implications of the findings for positive aging are discussed.

A first analysis of the mean motion of CHAMP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Deleflie

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The present study consists in studying the mean orbital motion of the CHAMP satellite, through a single long arc on a period of time of 200 days in 2001. We actually investigate the sensibility of its mean motion to its accelerometric data, as measures of the surface forces, over that period. In order to accurately determine the mean motion of CHAMP, we use “observed" mean orbital elements computed, by filtering, from 1-day GPS orbits. On the other hand, we use a semi-analytical model to compute the arc. It consists in numerically integrating the effects of the mean potentials (due to the Earth and the Moon and Sun, and the effects of mean surfaces forces acting on the satellite. These later are, in case of CHAMP, provided by an averaging of the Gauss system of equations. Results of the fit of the long arc give a relative sensibility of about 10-3, although our gravitational mean model is not well suited to describe very low altitude orbits. This technique, which is purely dynamical, enables us to control the decreasing of the trajectory altitude, as a possibility to validate accelerometric data on a long term basis.Key words. Mean orbital motion, accelerometric data

Means-Tested Public Assistance Programs and Adolescent Political Socialization.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, Carolyn Y; Hope, Elan C

2017-07-01

In recent years, scholars have pointed to the politically demobilizing effects of means-tested assistance programs on recipients. In this study, we bridge the insights from policy feedback literature and adolescent political socialization research to examine how receiving means-tested programs shapes parent influence on adolescent political participation. We argue that there are differences in pathways to political participation through parent political socialization and youth internal efficacy beliefs for adolescents from households that do or do not receive means-tested assistance. Using data from a nationally representative sample of 536 Black, Latino, and White adolescents (50.8% female), we find that adolescents from means-tested assistance households report less parent political socialization and political participation. For all youth, parent political socialization predicts adolescent political participation. Internal political efficacy is a stronger predictor of political participation for youth from a non-means-tested assistance household than it is for youth from a household receiving means-tested assistance. These findings provide some evidence of differential paths to youth political participation via exposure to means-tested programs.

Gripping means for fuel assemblies of nuclear reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Batjukov, V.I.; Fadeev, A.I.; Shkhian, T.G.; Vjugov, O.N.

1980-01-01

The proposed gripping means for fuel assemblies of a nuclear reactor comprises a housing, whereupon there is movably mounted a slider provided with longitudinally extending slots to receive gripping jaws whose tails are pivotably secured to the housing of the gripping means. On one side, the end faces of the longitudinally extending slots are slanted with respect to the longitudinal axis of the gripping means and come in contact with the teeth of the gripping jaws provided on the end which is opposite to the tail, whereby the jaws open as the slider and housing of the gripping means moves relative to each other so that the teeth are received in an internal groove provided in the head of the fuel assembly

Fibrous metaphyseal defects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hajek, P.C.; Ritschi, P.; Kramer, J.; Imhof, H.; Karnel, F.

1988-01-01

Eighty-two patients (107 fibrous metaphyseal defects [FMDs]) were investigated with standard radiography and MR imaging (N = 15). Twenty-two of these were followed up sequentially up to 10 years (mean, 7.3 years). Histologic studies proved that FMDs originate at the site of insertion of a tendon in the perichondrium of the epiphyseal cartilage. After normal bone growth is regained, all FMDs were found to move diaphysically, following a straight line parallel to the long axis of the FMDs. This line pointed to the insertion of the tendon originally involved, a fact that was proved with MR imaging. Four characteristic stages were found to define a typical radiomorphologic course of an FMD

Nuclear policy retrospection in Brazil and forecasting for using of small nuclear power plants - SNPs - in the Brazilian electric system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos, E.M. dos.

1992-02-01

This thesis highlights the nuclear energy perspectives to regain a prominent place in the world energy mix, as a competitive and safe energy source. Just considering the current international changes in the nuclear power features in the developed countries, it is assessed the suitability and feasibility of defining a new nuclear policy in Brazil, based on the development of small and medium nuclear power reactors - SMNPR. The SMNPR's may be a good nuclear strategy for Brazil to develop a national and evolutionary reactor design with several improvements in safety, by means of passive safety systems. This reactor may play a significant role in the brazilian electrical system in the long term. (author)

New nonlinear optical crystal CsLiB6O10 for laser fusion

Science.gov (United States)

Mori, Y.; Nakajima, S.; Taguchi, A.; Miyamoto, A.; Inagaki, M.; Sasaki, T.; Yoshida, H.; Nakai, S.

1996-05-01

In this paper, we have two main investigation of use SiO@d2 for laser material. The first one, Nd clustering in the SiO@d2 was reduced by using Nd exchanged zeolite for doping material. The second one, the new Nd;doped SiO@d2 shows the good properties comparing with the old Nd:doped SiO@d2. The Nd clustering is thought as the locally high concentration parts. This means the Nd-Nd distance control is effective to regain the fluorescence intensity and to get no opalescence. It is clear that using zeolite for Nd doping is useful for well dispersion of Nd in SiO@d2. (AIP)

7 CFR 1.410 - Meaning of words.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Meaning of words. 1.410 Section 1.410 Agriculture... Conservation and Shortage Relief Act of 1990 (16 U.S.C. 620 et seq.) § 1.410 Meaning of words. As used in these procedures, words in the singular form shall be deemed to import the plural, and vice versa, as the...

Mean Field Games with a Dominating Player

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bensoussan, A., E-mail: axb046100@utdallas.edu [The University of Texas at Dallas, International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis, Jindal School of Management (United States); Chau, M. H. M., E-mail: michaelchaumanho@gmail.com; Yam, S. C. P., E-mail: scpyam@sta.cuhk.edu.hk [The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Statistics (Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China) (China)

2016-08-15

In this article, we consider mean field games between a dominating player and a group of representative agents, each of which acts similarly and also interacts with each other through a mean field term being substantially influenced by the dominating player. We first provide the general theory and discuss the necessary condition for the optimal controls and equilibrium condition by adopting adjoint equation approach. We then present a special case in the context of linear-quadratic framework, in which a necessary and sufficient condition can be asserted by stochastic maximum principle; we finally establish the sufficient condition that guarantees the unique existence of the equilibrium control. The proof of the convergence result of finite player game to mean field counterpart is provided in Appendix.

Band mixing effects in mean field theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuyucak, S.; Morrison, I.

1989-01-01

The 1/N expansion method, which is an angular momentum projected mean field theory, is used to investigate the nature of electromagnetic transitions in the interacting boson model (IBM). Conversely, comparison with the exact IBM results sheds light on the range of validity of the mean field theory. It is shown that the projected mean field results for the E2 transitions among the ground, β and γ bands are incomplete for the spin dependent terms and it is essential to include band mixing effect for a correct (Mikhailov) analysis of E2 data. The algebraic expressions derived are general and will be useful in the analysis of experimental data in terms of both the sd and sdg boson models. 17 refs., 7 figs., 8 tabs

The Meaning of Happiness in Consumer Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandi Sørensen, Elin; Uth Thomsen, Thyra

2016-01-01

In this study we investigate the meaning of happiness in a consumption context. We employ an inductive approach and present the results of an exploratory pilot study with eight consumers. The study is based on a Multi-Sensory-Sculpting (MSS) procedure in which we asked consumers to build sculptures...... that represent consumer happiness. Following the MSS guidelines, consumers were interviewed about the meanings of their sculpture in order to elicit embodied cognition about the topic at hand. In this paper we present the meanings of consumer happiness in the participants‟ accounts and discuss implications...... for consumer research. Further, we discuss the applicability of the MSS-procedure to the topic of consumer happiness, and how to optimize it for later studies on consumer happiness....

Form, its meaning, and dictionary entries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Violetta Koseska-Toszewa

2015-11-01

It is worth stressing that distinguishing between the form and its meaning in comparing the material 6 languages belonging to three different groups of Slavic languages (as is the case in the MONDILEX Project will allow us to avoid numeorus substantiva mistakes and erroneous conclusions. Hence dictionary entries should be verified and made uniform in that respect before they are “digitalized”... Distinction between the form and its meaning in a dictionary entry is fully possible, as shown by works of Z. Saloni (2002 and A.Przepiórkowski (2008.

Mean-field models and superheavy elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reinhard, P.G.; Bender, M.; Maruhn, J.A.; Frankfurt Univ.

2001-03-01

We discuss the performance of two widely used nuclear mean-field models, the relativistic mean-field theory (RMF) and the non-relativistic Skyrme-Hartree-Fock approach (SHF), with particular emphasis on the description of superheavy elements (SHE). We provide a short introduction to the SHF and RMF, the relations between these two approaches and the relations to other nuclear structure models, briefly review the basic properties with respect to normal nuclear observables, and finally present and discuss recent results on the binding properties of SHE computed with a broad selection of SHF and RMF parametrisations. (orig.)

Standard deviation and standard error of the mean.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Dong Kyu; In, Junyong; Lee, Sangseok

2015-06-01

In most clinical and experimental studies, the standard deviation (SD) and the estimated standard error of the mean (SEM) are used to present the characteristics of sample data and to explain statistical analysis results. However, some authors occasionally muddle the distinctive usage between the SD and SEM in medical literature. Because the process of calculating the SD and SEM includes different statistical inferences, each of them has its own meaning. SD is the dispersion of data in a normal distribution. In other words, SD indicates how accurately the mean represents sample data. However the meaning of SEM includes statistical inference based on the sampling distribution. SEM is the SD of the theoretical distribution of the sample means (the sampling distribution). While either SD or SEM can be applied to describe data and statistical results, one should be aware of reasonable methods with which to use SD and SEM. We aim to elucidate the distinctions between SD and SEM and to provide proper usage guidelines for both, which summarize data and describe statistical results.

Mean-Variance-Validation Technique for Sequential Kriging Metamodels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Tae Hee; Kim, Ho Sung

2010-01-01

The rigorous validation of the accuracy of metamodels is an important topic in research on metamodel techniques. Although a leave-k-out cross-validation technique involves a considerably high computational cost, it cannot be used to measure the fidelity of metamodels. Recently, the mean 0 validation technique has been proposed to quantitatively determine the accuracy of metamodels. However, the use of mean 0 validation criterion may lead to premature termination of a sampling process even if the kriging model is inaccurate. In this study, we propose a new validation technique based on the mean and variance of the response evaluated when sequential sampling method, such as maximum entropy sampling, is used. The proposed validation technique is more efficient and accurate than the leave-k-out cross-validation technique, because instead of performing numerical integration, the kriging model is explicitly integrated to accurately evaluate the mean and variance of the response evaluated. The error in the proposed validation technique resembles a root mean squared error, thus it can be used to determine a stop criterion for sequential sampling of metamodels

Mean-field Ensemble Kalman Filter

KAUST Repository

Law, Kody; Tembine, Hamidou; Tempone, Raul

2015-01-01

A proof of convergence of the standard EnKF generalized to non-Gaussian state space models is provided. A density-based deterministic approximation of the mean-field limiting EnKF (MFEnKF) is proposed, consisting of a PDE solver and a quadrature

Some means inequalities for positive operators in Hilbert spaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jin Liang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract In this paper, we obtain two refinements of the ordering relations among Heinz means with different parameters via the Taylor series of some hyperbolic functions and by the way, we derive new generalizations of Heinz operator inequalities. Moreover, we establish a matrix version of Heinz inequality for the Hilbert-Schmidt norm. Finally, we introduce a weighted multivariate geometric mean and show that the weighted multivariate operator geometric mean possess several attractive properties and means inequalities.

Estimates of mean consequences and confidence bounds on the mean associated with low-probability seismic events in total system performance assessments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pensado, Osvaldo; Mancillas, James

2007-01-01

An approach is described to estimate mean consequences and confidence bounds on the mean of seismic events with low probability of breaching components of the engineered barrier system. The approach is aimed at complementing total system performance assessment models used to understand consequences of scenarios leading to radionuclide releases in geologic nuclear waste repository systems. The objective is to develop an efficient approach to estimate mean consequences associated with seismic events of low probability, employing data from a performance assessment model with a modest number of Monte Carlo realizations. The derived equations and formulas were tested with results from a specific performance assessment model. The derived equations appear to be one method to estimate mean consequences without having to use a large number of realizations. (authors)

Generalized mean detector for collaborative spectrum sensing

KAUST Repository

Shakir, Muhammad Zeeshan

2013-04-01

In this paper, a unified generalized eigenvalue based spectrum sensing framework referred to as Generalized mean detector (GMD) has been introduced. The generalization of the detectors namely (i) the eigenvalue ratio detector (ERD) involving the ratio of the largest and the smallest eigenvalues; (ii) the Geometric mean detector (GEMD) involving the ratio of the largest eigenvalue and the geometric mean of the eigenvalues and (iii) the Arithmetic mean detector (ARMD) involving the ratio of the largest and the arithmetic mean of the eigenvalues is explored. The foundation of the proposed unified framework is based on the calculation of exact analytical moments of the random variables of test statistics of the respective detectors. In this context, we approximate the probability density function (PDF) of the test statistics of the respective detectors by Gaussian/Gamma PDF using the moment matching method. Finally, we derive closed-form expressions to calculate the decision threshold of the eigenvalue based detectors by exchanging the derived exact moments of the random variables of test statistics with the moments of the Gaussian/Gamma distribution function. The performance of the eigenvalue based detectors is compared with the traditional detectors such as energy detector (ED) and cyclostationary detector (CSD) and validate the importance of the eigenvalue based detectors particularly over realistic wireless cognitive environments. Analytical and simulation results show that the GEMD and the ARMD yields considerable performance advantage in realistic spectrum sensing scenarios. Moreover, our results based on proposed simple and tractable approximation approaches are in perfect agreement with the empirical results. © 1972-2012 IEEE.

Endoscopic gastric pouch plication – a novel endoluminal incision free approach to revisional bariatric surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Virk CS

2010-04-01

Full Text Available 10-40% of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB patients regain significant weight after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery due to dilation of the pouch and/or the gastrojejunal (GJ anastomosis. Traditional revision surgery is associated with significant morbidity (e.g. post-anastomotic GJ leak where less invasive endoluminal procedures may represent safer alternatives. The present article reports a case of the safe and successful use of endoluminal gastric pouch plication (EGPP using the StomaphyX™ device to correct both a dilated gastric pouch and a dilated gastrojejunostomy in a post-RYGB patient who regained significant weight.

Relativistic mean-field mass models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pena-Arteaga, D.; Goriely, S.; Chamel, N. [Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Institut d' Astronomie et d' Astrophysique, CP-226, Brussels (Belgium)

2016-10-15

We present a new effort to develop viable mass models within the relativistic mean-field approach with density-dependent meson couplings, separable pairing and microscopic estimations for the translational and rotational correction energies. Two interactions, DD-MEB1 and DD-MEB2, are fitted to essentially all experimental masses, and also to charge radii and infinite nuclear matter properties as determined by microscopic models using realistic interactions. While DD-MEB1 includes the σ, ω and ρ meson fields, DD-MEB2 also considers the δ meson. Both mass models describe the 2353 experimental masses with a root mean square deviation of about 1.1 MeV and the 882 measured charge radii with a root mean square deviation of 0.029 fm. In addition, we show that the Pb isotopic shifts and moments of inertia are rather well reproduced, and the equation of state in pure neutron matter as well as symmetric nuclear matter are in relatively good agreement with existing realistic calculations. Both models predict a maximum neutron-star mass of more than 2.6 solar masses, and thus are able to accommodate the heaviest neutron stars observed so far. However, the new Lagrangians, like all previously determined RMF models, present the drawback of being characterized by a low effective mass, which leads to strong shell effects due to the strong coupling between the spin-orbit splitting and the effective mass. Complete mass tables have been generated and a comparison with other mass models is presented. (orig.)

Non-contact tamper sensing by electronic means

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gritton, D.G.

1993-01-01

A tamper-sensing tag is described comprising: a tag body adapted to be fixed against movement relative to a surface of an article, a capacitor having at least one variable-capacity section with first and second elements, said first element being positionable relative to said second element at various positions, displaced from each other, said one variable-capacity section having different amounts of capacity when said first element is in its various positions, respectively, relative to said second element, means for generating a first signal which is a function of the amount of capacity of said one variable-capacity section, said first signal having various values distinguishable from each other when said first element is in its various positions, respectively, relative to said second element, one of said first and second elements being fixed against movement relative to said tag body, and the other of said first and second elements being adapted to be fixed against movement relative to said surface of said article and with said first element being in a first position relative to said second element, said tag body and said other of said first and second elements being positionable relative to each other on said article prior to said tag body's being fixed to said article so as to enable said elements to be fixed to said article in said first position relative to each other, means in said tag for generating a second signal having a value unrelated to the amount of capacity of said one variable-capacity section, means in said tag for combining said first and second signals, means in said tag for encrypting said combined signals, means in said tag responsive to external interrogation of said tag for sending from said tag the encrypted combined signals in digital form, and wherein said means for generating said second signal has the function of changing the value of said second signal for each interrogation of said tag

Discrete time and continuous time dynamic mean-variance analysis

OpenAIRE

Reiss, Ariane

1999-01-01

Contrary to static mean-variance analysis, very few papers have dealt with dynamic mean-variance analysis. Here, the mean-variance efficient self-financing portfolio strategy is derived for n risky assets in discrete and continuous time. In the discrete setting, the resulting portfolio is mean-variance efficient in a dynamic sense. It is shown that the optimal strategy for n risky assets may be dominated if the expected terminal wealth is constrained to exactly attain a certain goal instead o...

Identify High-Quality Protein Structural Models by Enhanced K-Means.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Hongjie; Li, Haiou; Jiang, Min; Chen, Cheng; Lv, Qiang; Wu, Chuang

2017-01-01

Background. One critical issue in protein three-dimensional structure prediction using either ab initio or comparative modeling involves identification of high-quality protein structural models from generated decoys. Currently, clustering algorithms are widely used to identify near-native models; however, their performance is dependent upon different conformational decoys, and, for some algorithms, the accuracy declines when the decoy population increases. Results. Here, we proposed two enhanced K -means clustering algorithms capable of robustly identifying high-quality protein structural models. The first one employs the clustering algorithm SPICKER to determine the initial centroids for basic K -means clustering ( SK -means), whereas the other employs squared distance to optimize the initial centroids ( K -means++). Our results showed that SK -means and K -means++ were more robust as compared with SPICKER alone, detecting 33 (59%) and 42 (75%) of 56 targets, respectively, with template modeling scores better than or equal to those of SPICKER. Conclusions. We observed that the classic K -means algorithm showed a similar performance to that of SPICKER, which is a widely used algorithm for protein-structure identification. Both SK -means and K -means++ demonstrated substantial improvements relative to results from SPICKER and classical K -means.

The meaning of ordered SOS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mousavi, M.R.; Phillips, I.C.C.; Reniers, M.A.; Ulidowski, I.; Arun-Kumar, S.; Garg, N.

2006-01-01

Structured Operational Semantics (SOS) is a popular method for defining semantics by means of deduction rules. An important feature of deduction rules, or simply SOS rules, are negative premises, which are crucial in the definitions of such phenomena as priority mechanisms and time-outs. Orderings

The Interplay of Text, Meaning and Practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kärreman, Dan; Levay, Charlotta

2017-01-01

Context: The study of discourses (i.e. verbal interactions or written accounts) is increasingly used in social sciences to gain insight into issues connected to discourse, such as meanings, behaviours and actions. This paper situates discourse analysis in medical education, based on a framework...... settings, with a particular focus on the field of medical education. Methods: The study is based on a literature analysis of discourse analysis approaches published in Medical Education. Results: Findings suggest that empirical studies through discourse analysis can be heuristically understood in terms...... of the links between text, practices and meaning. Conclusions: Discourse analysis provides a more strongly supported argument when it is possible to defend claims on three levels: practice, using observational data; meaning, using ethnographic data, and text, using conversational and textual data....

Paralyzed Patients Regain Voluntary Movement | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

Science.gov (United States)

... to activate muscles, the researchers believed the electrical stimulation combined with the sensory input from walking could lead to movement. The ... Researchers had assumed at least some of the sensory pathway needed to be ... after starting stimulation. (l to r) V. Reggie Edgerton, Ph.D., ...

Hölder properties of perturbed skew products and Fubini regained

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ilyashenko, Yu; Negut, A

2012-01-01

In 2006, Gorodetski proved that central fibres of perturbed skew products are Hölder continuous with respect to the base point. In this paper, we give an explicit estimate of this Hölder exponent. Moreover, we extend Gorodetski's result from the case when the fibre maps are close to the identity to a much wider class of maps that satisfy the so-called modified dominated splitting condition. In many cases (for example, in the case of skew products over the solenoid or over linear Anosov diffeomorphisms of the torus), the Hölder exponent is close to 1. This allows one to overcome the so-called Fubini nightmare, in some sense. Namely, we prove that the union of central fibres that are strongly atypical from the point of view of ergodic theory, has Lebesgue measure zero despite the lack of absolute continuity of the holonomy map for the central foliation. This result is based on a new kind of ergodic theorem, which we call special. To prove our main result, we revisit the theory of Hirsch, Pugh and Shub, and estimate the contraction constant of the graph transform map. (paper)

Sustainable Development: A Strategy for Regaining Control of Northern Mali

Science.gov (United States)

2014-06-01

sheep and goats ) and Trans Saharan trade. Central to the Tuaregs’ successful trading were their strategically networked water wells, which were owned...nomadic activity; however, restricting nomadization forced the Tuaregs to abandon their life style, begin farming , and seek jobs in towns and cities

Byting Back. Regaining Information Superiority Against 21st-Century Insurgents

Science.gov (United States)

2007-01-01

hours (HDTV-quality resolution). Using the Apple iPod as a point of comparison, the storage can be either rotating (the 60 gigabytes of a top-of-the...line iPod Mini) or solid-state (the 8 gigabytes of a top-of-the-line iPod Nano ). The memory devices in both iPods are relatively light, at least in...services may make such phones more attractive. There is a thin line between “the government is watching me” and the “government is watching over me,” and a

Mindfulness Approaches and Weight Loss, Weight Maintenance, and Weight Regain.

Science.gov (United States)

Dunn, Carolyn; Haubenreiser, Megan; Johnson, Madison; Nordby, Kelly; Aggarwal, Surabhi; Myer, Sarah; Thomas, Cathy

2018-03-01

There is an urgent need for effective weight management techniques, as more than one third of US adults are overweight or obese. Recommendations for weight loss include a combination of reducing caloric intake, increasing physical activity, and behavior modification. Behavior modification includes mindful eating or eating with awareness. The purpose of this review was to summarize the literature and examine the impact of mindful eating on weight management. The practice of mindful eating has been applied to the reduction of food cravings, portion control, body mass index, and body weight. Past reviews evaluating the relationship between mindfulness and weight management did not focus on change in mindful eating as the primary outcome or mindful eating as a measured variable. This review demonstrates strong support for inclusion of mindful eating as a component of weight management programs and may provide substantial benefit to the treatment of overweight and obesity.

Inverse Function: Pre-Service Teachers' Techniques and Meanings

Science.gov (United States)

Paoletti, Teo; Stevens, Irma E.; Hobson, Natalie L. F.; Moore, Kevin C.; LaForest, Kevin R.

2018-01-01

Researchers have argued teachers and students are not developing connected meanings for function inverse, thus calling for a closer examination of teachers' and students' inverse function meanings. Responding to this call, we characterize 25 pre-service teachers' inverse function meanings as inferred from our analysis of clinical interviews. After…

28 CFR 35.176 - Alternative means of dispute resolution.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Alternative means of dispute resolution... DISABILITY IN STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES Compliance Procedures § 35.176 Alternative means of dispute resolution. Where appropriate and to the extent authorized by law, the use of alternative means of dispute...

The meaning of dwelling features : Conceptual and methodological issues

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coolen, H.C.C.H.

2008-01-01

This study is about the meaning of dwelling features. It relates the research areas of housing preferences and the meaning of a dwelling with each other and with aspects of the means-end approach as applied in marketing research. It results in a conceptual and methodological framework for studying

Non-Asymptotic Confidence Sets for Circular Means

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Hotz

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The mean of data on the unit circle is defined as the minimizer of the average squared Euclidean distance to the data. Based on Hoeffding’s mass concentration inequalities, non-asymptotic confidence sets for circular means are constructed which are universal in the sense that they require no distributional assumptions. These are then compared with asymptotic confidence sets in simulations and for a real data set.

An almost general theory of mean size perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Allik, Jüri; Toom, Mai; Raidvee, Aire; Averin, Kristiina; Kreegipuu, Kairi

2013-05-03

A general explanation for the observer's ability to judge the mean size of simple geometrical figures, such as circles, was advanced. Results indicated that, contrary to what would be predicted by statistical averaging, the precision of mean size perception decreases with the number of judged elements. Since mean size discrimination was insensitive to how total size differences were distributed among individual elements, this suggests that the observer has a limited cognitive access to the size of individual elements pooled together in a compulsory manner before size information reaches awareness. Confirming the associative law of addition means, observers are indeed sensitive to the mean, not the sizes of individual elements. All existing data can be explained by an almost general theory, namely, the Noise and Selection (N&S) Theory, formulated in exact quantitative terms, implementing two familiar psychophysical principles: the size of an element cannot be measured with absolute accuracy and only a limited number of elements can be taken into account in the computation of the average size. It was concluded that the computation of ensemble characteristics is not necessarily a tool for surpassing the capacity limitations of perceptual processing. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

EFL Learners’ Negotiation of Meaning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samira Saeed Rashid Al Hosni

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This study aimed at investigating EFL learners’ frequency of negotiation of meaning when performing focused and unfocused communication tasks. The sample consists of thirty learners divided into ten groups. Three research instruments were used to collect data; communication tasks, field notes and interviews. Data analysis revealed that there is no significant difference in the frequency of negotiation of meaning between the two task types. This is due to the fact that, learners performed both task types as unfocused tasks and they were able to use some communication strategies to keep communication flowing and to go round the target structure. Amazingly, despite the existence of the trigger of negotiation, the indicator of misunderstanding, an important negotiation phase, was absent in many cases from the conversations in both task types. Subsequently, the research findings suggest providing learners with opportunities that urge them to perform as language users rather than language learners.